PRESBYTERIANS 


AND 


THE     REVOLUTION. 


BY   THE 

KEY.  W.  P.  BREED,   D.D. 

i  \ 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PKESBYTERIAN    BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION 
1334  CHESTNUT  STREET. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  yar  1876,  by 

THE  TRUSTEES  OP  THE 

PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


WESTCOTT  &  THOMSON, 
Stereotypers  and  Elcdrotypers,  PMada. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

PAGE 

PRESBYTERIANS  AND  THE  CENTENNIAL 5 

CHAPTEK  II. 

PRESBYTERIANISM    A    EEPRESENTATIVE     EEPUBLICAN 
FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT 24 

CHAPTER   III. 
PRESBYTERIANISM  ODIOUS  TO  TYRANTS 34 

CHAPTEK  IV. 

PRESBYTERIAN    SPIRIT  IN    HARMONY  WITH   THAT    OF 
THE   REVOLUTION 41 

CHAPTEK  V. 
THE  WESTMORELAND  COUNTY  RESOLUTIONS 58 

CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  MECKLENBURG  DECLARATION 65 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PRESBYTERIAN  ZEAL  AND  SUFFERING 79 

3 


M140824 


4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

FORMAL  ACTION  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 108 

CHAPTEE  IX. 

DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE    ANI>    DR.    JOHN 
WITHERSPOON 136 

CHAPTER  X. 
ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY 167 

CHAPTER  XI. 
MONUMENT  TO  WITHERSPOON 180 


PRESBYTERIANS 


AND 


THE  REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 
PRESBYTERIANS  AND   THE  CENTENNIAL. 

TT  was  to  be  expected  that  the  approach  of 
-  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  our 
nation's  birth  would  awaken  a  profound  in 
terest  in  the  public  mind  and  give  rise  to 
measures  for  a  commemorative  recognition  in 
some  degree  befitting  the  occasion. 

Of  necessity  the  national  thought  reverts 
to  those  stirring  times  that  so  grandly  tried 
the  souls  of  men  and  issued  in  the  creation 
of  this  gigantic  republic.  Again  on  our  eye 
flashes  the  light  of  those  guns  that  laid  the 
martyrs  low  on  Lexington  Green  and  at 


AND 


Concord  Bridge.  Again  to  our  ear  comes 
the  report  of  "the  shot  heard  round  the 
world."  The  heroic  devotion  of  those  men 
who,  for  the  sake  of  a  principle,  so  calmly 
offered  their  breasts  to  the  deadly  leaden 
hail,  stirs  with  a  fresh  impulse  the  patriotic 
virtues  within  us  and  lifts  our  manhood 
higher  in  our  esteem.  Anew  there  passes 
across  the  field  of  our  vision  that  grand  pro 
cession  of  sages  and  statesmen  and  military 
heroes,  and  we  thank  the  God  of  nations  for 
a  generation  of  men  so  fitted  for  the  exigencies 
of  such  a  day  and  hour. 

History  has  abundantly  verified  the  in 
sight  of  Chatham  as  displayed  in  his  fervid 
eloquence  in  the  House  of  Lords,  in  January, 
1775: 

"  When  your  lordships  look  at  the  papers 
transmitted  us  from  America,  when  you 
consider  their  decency,  firmness  and  wisdom, 
you  cannot  but  respect  their  cause  and  wish 
to  make  it  your  own. 

"  For  myself  I  must  avow  that  in  all  my 


THE  REVOLUTION.  < 

reading — and  I  have  read  Tlmcydides  and 
have  studied  and  admired  the  master-states 
of  the  world — for  solidity  of  reason,  force  of 
sagacity  and  wisdom  of  conclusion  under  a 
complication  of  difficult  circumstances,  no 
nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand  in  prefer 
ence  to  the  general  congress  at  Philadelphia. 
The  histories  of  Greece  and  Rome  give  us 
nothing  equal  to  it." 

The  bustle  also  of  the  town-meeting  breaks 
on  the  ear.  We  hear  the  broad-browed  yeo 
men  discussing  the  foundation  principles  of 
free  government,  and  closing  the  discussion 
with  the  high  resolve  for  liberty  or  death. 
The  provincial  congress  gathers,  and  thrills 
with  the  burning  sentences  that  spring  from 
the  lips  of  an  Adams  or  a  Patrick  Henry. 
The  Continental  Congress  assembles,  doubtful 
of  its  powers,  uncertain  as  to  wrhat  wisdom 
demands,  hindered  by  countless  obstacles, 
only  one  thing  clear,  and  that  is  their  inflexi 
ble  determination  not  to  submit  to  the  tyran 
nies  of  the  British  king  and  his  parliament. 


8  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

For  a  time  apparent  chaos  reigns;  but 
through  all  the  will  of  God  is  working 
toward  order  and  organization,  and  the 
result  is,  first,  victory  in  the  field,  second, 
a  confederacy  of  the  colonies,  and  third, 
that  wonderful  embodiment  of  human  ability 
and  ripe  statesmanship,  the  national  Consti 
tution. 

"The  structure,"  says  Judge  Story,  "has 
been  erected  by  architects  of  consummate 
skill  and  fidelity.  Its  foundations  are  solid ; 
its  compartments  beautiful  as  well  as  useful ; 
its  arrangements  are  full  of  wisdom  and 
order,  and  its  defences  are  impregnable  from 
without. 

"In  the  sunshine  of  peace  and  in  the 
storm  of  war  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  of  America  has  had  a  severe  but  im 
partial  trial.  It  has  amply  fulfilled  the  ex 
pectation  of  its  friends  and  completely  dissi 
pated  the  fears  of  its  early  opponents. 

"As  a  great  rule  of  political  conduct  it  has 
guided  the  country,  through  unprecedented 


THE  REVOLUTION.  9 

political  vicissitudes  and  perilous  revolution 
ary  commotions  among  the  nations,  to  a  con 
dition  at  once  so  prosperous  and  commanding 
that  it  has  wholly  outstripped  all  foresight 
and  calculation. 

"  When  we  look  at  the  vast  -  theatre  on 
which,  under  the  influence  of  its  provisions, 
our  maritime  trade  has  been  employed,  the 
freedom  and  prosperity  we  enjoy  at  home, 
the  respect  entertained  for  our  country 
abroad,  our  thankfulness  to  God  ought  to 
know  no  bounds." 

In  his  oration  at  the  late  centennial  cele 
bration  at  Concord,  Mr.  George  William 
Curtis  well  said : 

"At  the  end  of  a  century  we  can  see  the 
work  of  this  day  as  our  fathers  could  not ; 
we  can  see  that  then  the  final  movement 
began  of  a  process  long  and  unconsciously 
preparing,  which  was  to  entrust  liberty  to 
new  forms,  and  institutions  that  seemed  full 
of  happy  promise  for  mankind.  And  now 
for  nearly  a  century  what  was  formerly  called 


10  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  experiment  of  a  representative  republic 
of  imperial  extent  and  power  lias  been  tried. 
Has  it  fulfilled  the  hopes  of  its  founders  and 
the  just  expectations  of  mankind?  I  have 
already  glanced  at  its  early  and  fortunate 
conditions,  and  we  know  how  vast  and  splen 
did  were  its  early  growth  and  development. 
Our  material  statistics  soon  dazzled  the  world. 
Europe  no  longer  sneered,  but  gazed  in  won 
der,  waiting  and  watching.  Our  population 
doubled  every-  fifteen  years,  and  our  wealth 
every  ten  years.  Every  little  stream  among 
the  hills  turned  a  mill ;  and  the  great  inland 
seas,  bound  by  the  genius  of  Clinton  to  the 
ocean,  became  the  highway  of  boundless 
commerce,  the  path  of  unprecedented  empire. 
Our  farms  were  the  granary  of  other  lands. 
Our  cotton-fields  made  England  rich.  Still, 
we  chased  the  whale  in  the  Pacific  Ocean 
and  took  fish  in  the  tumbling  seas  of  Labra 
dor.  We  hung  our  friendly  lights  along 
thousands  of  miles  of  coast  to  tempt  the 
trade  of  every  clime ;  and  wherever,  on  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  11 

dim  rim  of  the  globe  there  was  a  harbor,  it 
was  white  with  American  sails.  Meanwhile, 
at  home,  the  political  foreboding  of  Federal 
ism  had  died  away,  and  its  very  wail  seemed 
a  tribute  to  the  pacific  glories  of  the  land. 

The  ornament  of  beauty  is  suspect, 

A  crow  that  flies  in  heaven's  sweetest  air. 

"The  government  was  felt  to  be  but  a 
hand  of  protection  and  blessing;  labor  was 
fully  employed ;  capital  was  secured ;  the 
army  was  a  jest;  enterprise  was  pushing 
through  the  Alleghanies,  grasping  and  set 
tling  the  El  Dorado  of  the  prairies,  and  still, 
having  traversed  the  wilderness,  reached  out 
toward  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  reversing 
the  voyage  of  Columbus,  re-discovered  the 
Old  World  from  the  New." 

With  a  career  behind  us  such  as  this,  and 
with  such  scenes  of  prosperity  around  us,  it 
was  impossible  that  the  hundredth  anniver 
sary  of  the  nation's  birth  should  be  allowed 
to  pass  without  some  marked  recognition  of 


12  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  event,  at  least  on  the  part  of  the  city 
where  our  independence  was  born  and  our 
government  brought  into  being. 

It  is  now  certain  that  the  year  1876  will  see 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  own  nation,  and 
crowds  from  other  nations,  of  every  kindred, 
tribe  and  tongue,  thronging  the  city  of  Phil 
adelphia  to  take  part  in  a  succession  of  ex 
citing  services  commemorative  of  the  time 
when  our  fathers,  under  the  inspiration  of 
principles  derived  from  God's  holy  word,  at 
the  ringing  of  that  bell  that  proclaimed 
"liberty  throughout  all  the  land,  unto  all 
the  inhabitants  thereof,"  and  chanting  as 
they  marched,  "All  men  are  created  equal, 
and  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer 
tain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life, 
liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  crossed 
the  Jordan  from  colonial  bondage  to  na 
tional  freedom. 

Then,  as  in  a  photograph,  will  be  held  up 
to  the  world's  gaze  our  own  broad  land  ;  this 
Atlantic  Slope  and  that  Pacific  Slope,  with 


THE  REVOLUTION.  13 

that  boundless  intervening  valley  "well 
watered  everywhere  like  the  land  of  Egypt, 
as  thou  comest  unto  Zoar;"  blessed  with 
"  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  the  dew  and 
the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath,  the  precious 
fruits  brought  forth  by  the  sun,  the  precious 
things  put  forth  by  the  moon,  the  chief 
things  of  the  ancient  mountains  and  the 
precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills,  the  pre 
cious  things  of  the  earth  and  fullness  there 
of,  and  the  good-will  of  Him  that  dwelt  in 
the  bush ;"  that  imperial  platform  of  com 
monwealths,  inseparably  interlocked  together, 
ribanded  to  one  another  by  majestic  rivers 
and  pressed  down  in  their  places  by  ever 
lasting  mountains,  swarming  with  forty  mil 
lions  of  people,  humming  with  the  music  of 
countless  industries,  adorned  with  arts  that 
vie  with  those  of  the  nations  across  the  sea, 
dotted  over  with  schools,  seminaries,  colleges 
and  universities  where  our  sons  are  "as 
plants  growing  up  in  their  youth  and  our 
daughters  like  corner-stones  polished  after 


14  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  similitude  of  a  palace/'  abounding  from 
lake  to  gulf  and  from  ocean  to  ocean  with 
Sabbath-schools,  and  with  church  edifices 
whose  spires  point  to  heaven,  and  glorified 
with  countless  hospitals  and  homes  for  the 
friendless,  and  other  institutions  of  Christian 
charity  : 

"  A  glorious  land, 

With  broad  arms  stretched  from  shore  to  shore, 
The  proud  Pacific  chafes  her  strand, 

She  hears  the  loud  Atlantic  roar ; 
And  nurtured  in  her  ample  breast, 

How  many  a  goodly  prospect  lies, 
In  nature's  wildest  grandeur  drest, 

Enameled  with  her  loveliest  dyes !" 

When  the  project  for  the  celebration  had 
taken  practicable  shape,  and  it  had  become 
certain  that  a  great  "international  exposi 
tion  "  was  to  be  held  which  should  present  an 
epitome  of  our  national  productions,  a  group 
ing  of  all  the  agencies,  instrumentalities,  ele 
ments,  products  and  results  of  our  American 
civilization,  challenging  the  attention  of  the 
world  to  the  condition  of  mechanic  art  and 
fine  art,  agricultural  interests,  educational 


THE  REVOLUTION.  15 

institutions,  literature  and  science  among  us, 
the  question  very  naturally  arose,  What  of 
religion  f  Is  religion  to  be  ignored  as  a 
thing  of  naught  on  such  an  occasion  ?  Re 
ligion,  in  a  land  where  nearly  every  seventh 
person  occupies  a  seat  at  some  evangeli 
cal  communion-table;  religion,  that  had  so 
large  an  agency  in  the  revolution ;  religion, 
that  has  done  more  for  our  civilization  and 
for  the  common  weal  than  any  other  agency, 
if  not  more  than  all  the  others  put  together, 
—shall  it  have  no  part  in  the  grand  celebra 
tion,  no  voice  in  the  general  jubilee? 

To  ask  the  question  was  to  answer  it.  No 
enlightened  Christian  but  felt  that  the  Church 
in  our  land  would  be  chargeable  with  shame 
ful  remissness  if  it  allowed  the  mere  secular- 
ities  of  life  to  monopolize  the  honors  of  the 
hour,  and  refused  or  neglected  to  give  God 
the  glory.  Accordingly,  all,  or  nearly  all, 
of  the  religious  denominations  in  the  country 
have  taken  measures  in  one  way  or  another 
to  call  attention  to  their  services  severally  in 


16  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  great  work  of  helping  on  the  weal  of  the 
nation. 

This  being  so,  how  could  Presbyterians 
fail  to  take  their  part  on  such  an  occasion  ? 
How  could  they  justify  themselves  to  them 
selves  and  to  the  system  they  so  fondly  cher 
ish  if  they  alone  remained  inert,  and,  instead 
of  blending  their  denominational  zeal  with 
their  patriotism,  allowed  their  fervor  as  cit 
izens  to  monopolize  all  their  thoughts  and 
energies  ? 

On  such  an  occasion  who  will  condemn, 
what  magnanimous  spirit  will  not  commend 
the  act,  if  we  as  Presbyterians  accept  the 
opportunity  to  inquire  into  and  set  forth  the 
services  rendered  by  Presbyterianism  in  the 
cause  of  our  country  ? 

There  is  no  call  upon  us  to  disparage  any 
other  body  of  co-workers  in  the  cause 
of  human  emancipation.  If  our  Lutheran 
brethren  remind  us  that  the  illustrious  leader 
whose  name  they  bear  was  the  first  in  the 
great  Reformation  to  smite  and  break  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  17 

chain  that  held  the  human  mind  in  bondage, 
we,  with  all  our  hearts,  will  thank  God  with 
them  for  the  services  which  that  heroic  man 
was  called  to  render.     But  for  the  Reforma 
tion  led  by  Luther,  there  had  been  no  Revo 
lution  led  by  Washington.     And  our  Episco 
pal  brethren  may  well  glory  in  the  fact  that 
Washington  was  an  Episcopalian,  as  was  also 
the  pre-eminent  George  Mason,  successor  of 
Washington  as  representative  in  the  Virginia 
Convention  in  1776.     Nor  will  our  Baptist 
brethren,  always  the  champions  of  liberty, 
civil  and  religious,  forbid  our  glorying  in  our 
cause,  for  we  glory  with  them  in  the  name 
of  Roger  Williams,  who,  far  in  advance  of 
his  times,  delivered  the  golden  oracle,  "  The 
civil  magistrate  should   restrain   crime,  but 
never  control  opinion/7  and  whose  biography 
has  been  faithfully  recorded  by  a  Presbyte 
rian  pen.     "And  John  Wesley,"  writes  Mr. 
Bancroft,  "  on  getting  the  tidings  of  the  bat 
tles  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  thought  that 
silence  on  his  part  would   be  a  sin  against 


18  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

God,  against  his  country  and  against  his 
own  soul ;  and  waiting  but  one  day,  he  wrote 
severally  to  Dartmouth  and  Lord  North  ;" 
and  among  other  things  he  said  : 

"  In  spite  of  all  my  long-rooted  prejudices, 
I  cannot  avoid  thinking  these  an  oppressed 
people  asking  for  nothing  more  than  their 
legal  rights,  and  that  in  the  most  modest 
and  inoffensive  manner  that  the  nature  of 
the  thing  will  allow. 

"Is  it  common  sense  to  use  force  toward 
the  Americans  ?  They  are  strong ;  they  are 
valiant;  they  are  one  and  all  enthusiasts- 
enthusiasts  for  liberty — calm,  deliberate  en 
thusiasts. 

"They  are  terribly  united;  they  think 
they  are  contending  for  their  wives,  children 
and  liberty." 

As  to  the  Puritans  of  New  England,  their 
heroic  devotion,  sacrifices  and  services  are  too 
well  known  and  too  widely  acknowledged  to 
fear  assault  from  any  quarter.  Truth  to  his 
tory,  indeed,  constrains  the  record  that  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  19 

Puritanism  of  New  England  embosomed  a 
large  element  of  Presbyterianism.  "  It  is 
estimated,"  writes  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  in 
his  "  Constitutional  History  of  the  Presby 
terian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America/'  "that  about  twenty-two  thousand 
two  hundred  emigrants  arrived  in  New  Eng 
land  before  1640.  Cotton  Mather  tells  us 
that  previous  to  that  same  year  four  thou 
sand  Presbyterians  had  arrived."  In  another 
place,  when  speaking  of  the  union  effected 
between  the  Congregationalists  and  Presby 
terians  in  London  about  the  year  1690,  he 
says :  "  The  same  union,  and  on  the  same 
terms,  had  subsisted  between  these  two  de 
nominations  in  New  England  for  'many  dec 
ades  of  years' — that  is,  almost  from  the  first 
settlement  of  the  country." 

Accordingly,  Increase  Mather  begged  King 
William  to  consider  that  "  in  New  England 
they  differ  from  other  plantations ;  they  are 
called  Congregational  and  Presbyterian ;  so 
that  such  a  governor  will  not  suit  with  the 


20  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

people  of  New  England,  as   may   be   very 
proper  for  other  English  plantations. 

"  Of  the  two  thousand  Presbyterian  minis 
ters  cast  out  of  the  Church  of  England  by 
the  Act  of  Uniformity,  a  considerable  num 
ber,  it  is  said,  found  a  refuge  in  New  Eng 
land." 

The  Rev.  J.  B.  Dales,  D.  D.,  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church,  in  his  discourse  at  the 
Tercentenary  Celebration  of  Presbyterian- 
ism,*  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1872,  said : 

"  The  Puritans  of  England  were  long  after 
their  rise  unquestionably  largely  Presbyte 
rian.  Robinson  distinctly  affirmed  that  his 
church  at  Leyden,  the  mother-church  of  the 
Plymouth  colony,  was  of  the  same  govern 
ment  as  the  Protestant  Church  of  France. 
Fourteen  years  before  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  in  New  England,  Brevvster 
was  chosen  an  elder  by  the  congregation;  and 
when,  nearly  two  years  after,  he  was  chosen 

*  See  The  Tercentenary  Book,  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publi 
cation.  Philadelphia. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  21 

to  be  an  assistant  of  Robinson,  he  declined 
to  administer  the  sacraments  expressly  on  the 
ground  that  the  ruling  elder's  office  which  he 
held  did  not  entitle  him  to  do  that  which  he 
believed  belonged  to  the  minister  or  teaching 
elder. 

"With  this  office  and  with  these  views, 
Brewster  came  to  this  country  with  the 
Plymouth  colony,  and  thus  he  helped  to 
form  the  Plymouth  Church.  Thenceforward 
for  a  long  period,  acting  on  this  principle, 
the  early  churches  of  Salem,  Charlestown, 
Boston  and  elsewhere  in  New  England  had 
ruling  elders,  while  in  1646  and  1680  re 
spectively  all  the  ministers  and  an  elder 
from  each  church  met  in  synod  at  Cam 
bridge,  and  by  distinct  act  recognized  the 
Presbyterian  form  of  church  government. 
They  went  so  far  as  to  adopt  the  Confession 
of  Faith  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of 
Divines." 

It  is  therefore  abundantly  evident  that  in 
the  splendid  patriotism  of  New  England  in 


22    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

the  Revolution,  Presbyter ianism  had   a  far 
from  insignificant  share. 

As,  then,  from  our  Centennial  heights  we 
take  a  view  of  the  teeming  affluence  of  re 
sults  that  have  issued  from  our  Revolutionary 
struggle — results  of  material  prosperity,  of 
civil  and  religious  freedom,  happy  severance 
of  Church  and  State,  of  evangelical  piety  and 
missionary  zeal — and  with  ample  and  thank 
ful  acknowledgments  of  all  that  is  due  to 
others—it  is  a  privilege  of  Presbyterians 
which  no  one  will  question,  to  remind 
themselves  and  others  of  the  services  ren 
dered  by  Presbyterianism  in  that  momentous 
struggle. 


CHAPTER    II. 

PRESBYTERIANISM    A    REPRESENTATIVE     RE 
PUBLICAN  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

pRESBYTEKIANISM,  strictly  speaking, 
is  a  system  of  church  government,  and 
is  not  necessarily  allied  to  any  one  system 
of  doctrine.  History,  however,  shows  it  so 
steadily  inclining  toward  arid  so  generally 
associated  with  the  system  of  doctrine  com 
monly  styled  Calvinistic  as  to  suggest  the 
existence  of  strong  affinities  between  them. 

For  as  Mr.  Barnes  writes,  "Calvinism  and 
Presbyterianism  spring  essentially  from  the 
same  idea — the  idea  of  government,  of  regu^ 
larity,  of  order ;  the  idea  that  God  rules ; 
that  government  is  desirable ;  that  things  are 
and  should  be  fixed  and  stable;  that  there 
is  and  should  be  law ;  that  the  affairs  of  the 
universe  at  large,  the  affairs  of  society  and 

23 


24  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  affairs  of  individuals  should  be  founded 
on  settled  principles,  and  should  not  be  left 
to  chance  and  haphazard. 

"  Calvinism,  though  it  seems  to  be,  and 
though  it  is  often  represented  as,  a  mere 
system  of  doctrine  or  of  abstract  dogmas 
having  no  philosophical  foundation  and  no 
practical  bearing,  is,  in  fact,  a  system  of 
government — a  method  and  form  in  which 
the  divine  power  is  put  forth  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  affairs  of  the  universe.  It  is 
based  on  the  idea  that  God  rules;  that  he 
has  a  plan ;  that  the  plan  is  fixed  and  cer 
tain  ;  that  it  does  not  depend  on  the  fluctua 
tions  of  the  human  will,  on  the  caprice  of 
the  human  heart,  or  on  the  contingencies 
and  uncertainties  of  undetermined  events  in 
human  affairs.  It  supposes  that  God  is 
supreme ;  that  he  has  authority ;  that  he 
has  a  right  to  exercise  dominion ;  that  for 
the  good  of  the  universe  that  right  should 
be  exercised,  and  that  infinite  power  is  put 
forth  only  in  accordance  with  a  plan." 


THE  REVOLUTION.  25 

Presbyterianism  is  the  carrying  out  of 
ideas  of  order,  authority  and  law  as  mani 
fested  in  government  and  in  doctrine.  And 
as  a  rule,  Calvinism  and  Presbyterianism  are 
found  combined. 

That  there  is  a  natural  and  strong  affinity* 
between  Presbyterian  and  republican  forms 
of  government  is  a  truth  that  secular  his 
torians  have  recognized  and  fully  acknow 
ledged. 

"Calvinism,"  writes  Mr.  Bancroft,  "  is 
gradual  republicanism. 

"  In  Geneva,  a  republic  on  the  confines  of 
France,  Italy  and  Germany,  Calvin,  appeal 
ing  to  the  people  for  support,  continued  the 
career  of  enfranchisement  by  planting  the 
institutions  which  nursed  the  minds  of  Rous 
seau,  Necker  and  De  Stael." 

"  It  was  to  Geneva,"  writes  Mr.  Villers 
(quoted  by  Smythe),  "  that  all  the  proscribed 
exiles  who  were  driven  from  England  by  the 
intolerance  of  Mary  came  to  get  intoxicated 
with  republicanism,  and  from  this  focus  they 


26  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

brought  back  with  them  those  principles 
of  republicanism  which  annoyed  Elizabeth, 
perplexed  and  resisted  James  and  brought 
Charles  to  the  deserved  death  of  a  traitor." 

"The  remains  of  the  school  of  Melville," 
writes  Dr.  Ayton,  u  led  on  by  Mr.  William 
Scott  and  Mr.  John  Carmichael,  were  favor 
able  to  a  republic." 

"  Did  a  proud  aristocracy,"  writes  Mr. 
Bancroft,  "trace  its  lineage  through  a  high 
born  ancestry,  the  Republican  Reformer  with 
a  loftier  pride  invaded  the  invisible  world, 
and  from  the  book  of  life  brought  down  the 
record  of  the  noblest  enfranchisement  decreed 
from  all  eternity  by  the  King  of  kings." 

"  Calvin,"  writes  Bishop  Horsley,  "  was 
unquestionably  in  theory  a  republican.  So 
wedded  was  he  to  this  notion  that  he  endeav 
ored  to  fashion  the  government  of  all  the 
Protestant  churches  upon  republican  princi 
ples." 

"The  school  of  Knox,"  writes  Hallam, 
"  was  full  of  men  breathing  their  Master's 


THE  REVOLUTION.  27 

spirit.  Their  system  of  local  and  general  " 
assemblies  infused,  together  with  the  forms 
of  a  republic,  its  energy  and  impatience  of 
external  control,  combined  with  the  concen 
tration  and  unity  of  purpose  that  belong  to 
the  most  vigorous  government. 

"Not  merely  in  their  representative  as 
semblies,  but  in  their  pulpits,  they  perpet 
ually  remonstrated  in  no  guarded  language 
against  the  misgovernment  of  the  court  and 
even  the  personal  indiscretions  of  the  king." 

To  such  an  extreme  did  they  carry  their 
views  of  freedom  that  Andrew  Melville, 
when  summoned  before  the  court  to  answer 
some  so-called  seditious  utterances  in  the 
pulpit,  declined  to  acknowledge  its  jurisdic 
tion  on  the  ground  that  he  was  responsible 
first  to  his  presbytery. 

Of  the  Scottish  preachers  Lord  Macaulay 
writes :  "  They  inherited  the  republican  opin 
ions  of  Knox." 

Isaac  Taylor  calls  republicanism  the  Pres 
byterian  principle. 


28  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

The  late  able  and  distinguished  Roman 
Catholic,  Archbishop  Hughes  of  New  York, 
wrote : 

'  Though  it  is  my  privilege  to  regard  the 
authority  exercised  by  the  General  Assembly 
as  usurpation,  still  I  must  say,  with  every 
man  acquainted  with  the  mode  in  which  it  is 
organized,  that  for  the  purposes  of  popular 
and  political  government  its  structure  is  little 
inferior  to  that  of  Congress  itself.  Jt  acts 
on  the  principle  of  a  radiating  centre,  and  is 
without  an  equal  or  a  rival  among  the  other 
denominations  of  the  country." 

Very  welcome  testimony  is  this,  from  a 
very  unexpected  quarter. 

The  fundamental  principles  of  Presbyteri- 
anism  embrace  the  following  points : 

1.  The  body  of  the  people  are,  under  God, 
the  source  and   fountain  of  all  the   powers 
exercised  in  the  government  of  the  Church. 

2.  Only  by  the  voice  of  the  people  can 
any   incumbent   find    his    way    into   official 
position. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  29 

3.  In  connection  with  the  pastor,  who  has 
been  elected   by  the  people,  certain  people, 
elected  for  this  purpose  by  their  brethren, 
shall  exercise  the  functions  of  rulers  over  the 
church  and  congregation. 

4.  The  government  of  the  Church  is  to  be 
administered  in  accordance  with  a  constitu 
tion  embracing  principles  derived  from  the 
word  of  God  and  agreed  upon  by  the  people, 
through   those  whom  they  have   chosen  to 
represent  them. 

5.  All  ministers  hold  perfect  equality  of 
rank    among  themselves,  and   as  rulers   all 
preachers  and  ruling  elders  have  equal  au 
thority  in  the  governing   assemblies  of  the 
Church. 

6.  The  voice  of  the  majority  is  the  voice 
of  the  whole.     This  principle  applies  equally 
to  any  congregation  in  the  choice  of  officers, 
and  to  any  one  of  the  local  governing  as 
semblies,  and   also  to  the  whole    aggregate 
Church. 

"  The  radical   principles  of  Presbyterian 


30  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

church  government  are  that  a  larger  part 
^of  the  Church,  or  a  representation  of  it, 
should  govern  a  smaller ;  that  in  like  man 
ner  a  representation  of  the  whole  should 
govern  and  determine  in  regard  to  every 
part,  and  to  all  the  parts  united — that  is,  a 
^majority  shall  govern" 

That  this  system  is  in  close  accord  with 
that  of  the  primitive  Church  ecclesiastical 
history  testifies. 

"  Each  individual  church,"  writes  Mos- 
heim,  "  assumed  to  itself  the  rights  of  a  little 
distinct  republic  or  commonwealth. 

"At  length  the  churches  of  a  province  be 
came  associated  much  after  the  manner  of 
confederate  republics,  so  that  the  Christian 
community  may  be  said  thenceforward  to 
have  resembled  one  large  commonweal,  made 
up,  like  those  of  Holland  and  Switzerland, 
of  many  minor  republics." 

Speaking  of  the  Presbyterian  system, 
Alexander  Henderson  writes  : 

"  Here  is  superiority  without  tyranny;  for 


THE  REVOLUTION.  31 

no  minister  has  a  papal  or  monarchical  juris 
diction  over  his  own  flock,  far  less  over  other 
pastors  and  over  all  the  congregations.    Here 
is  parity  without  confusion  and  disorder;  for 
the  pastors  are  in  order  before  elders.    Every 
particular  church  is  subordinate  to  a  presby 
tery,  the  presbytery  to  the  synod,  and  the 
synod  to   the   national   assembly.     Here   is 
subjection  without   slavery;   for  the   people 
are  subject  to  the  pastors   and   assemblies; 
yet  there  is  no  assembly  wherein  every  par 
ticular  church  hath  not  interest  and  power." 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  forms  of 
the  Greek,  Roman   and  former   French  re 
publics  are  aware  of  one  marked  distinction 
between  them  and  our  own,  in  the  matter  of 
organization.     The  former  were  exceedingly 
loose-jointed,  while  .ours  is  as  one  body,  "fitly  *- 
joined  together  and  compacted  by  that  which 
every  joint  supplieth,"  legislative,  executive, 
judicial,  all  distinct,  yet  working  together  as 
component  parts  of  well-adjusted  machinery. 
In  the  commonwealth  we  find  township, 


32  PRESEYTERIAXS  AND 

county  and  State  government  compacted 
into  a  happy  system  of  order,  superiority 
and  subordination;  in  the  judiciary,  court 
above  court,  from  lowest  to  supreme;  and 
above  all,  the  national  Congress  and  gov 
ernment. 

So  in  our  Church  we  have,  first,  the  indi 
vidual  session,  composed  of  men  elected  by 
the  people — each  church  a  little  republic. 
Above  the  session  is  the  presbytery,  super 
vising  all  the  church  sessions,  and  composed 
of  ministers  and  a  lay  representation  from 
the  several  churches,  equal  and  often  superior 
in  number  to  the  ministers — another  and 
larger  republic.  Next  above  is  the  synod, 
which  is  only  a  larger  presbytery — another 
republic.  And  above  all  is  the  general 
assembly,  which  is  the  general  presbytery, 
our  ecclesiastical  congress,  our  whole  Church 
in  general  assembly  convened. 

The  records  of  every  session  are  annually 
reviewed  and  commended  or  censured  bv 

*/ 

the   presbytery   to   which    it   belongs.       In 


THE  REVOLUTION.  33 

like  manner,  the  records  of  each  presbytery 
are  reviewed  by  the  synod,  and  the  records 
of  each  synod  by  the  general  assembly.  A 
member  of  any  one  of  our  churches  tried 
and  censured  by  the  session  may  appeal  to 
the  presbytery,  and  thence,  if  he  will,  to  the 
synod,  and  thence  to  the  general  assembly. 
Thus  the  youngest  and  humblest  member 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  enjoys  the  in 
alienable  privilege  of  having  his  case  finally 
adjudicated  by  the  whole  Church. 

It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  our  church 
government  is  in  singular  harmony  with  the 
spirit  and  form  of  government  in  both  the 
State  and  nation. 


CHAPTER   III. 
PRESBYTEEIANISM  ODIOUS  TO  TYRANTS. 

"PBOTESTANTISM,"  writes  Carlyle, "  was 
a  revolt  against  spiritual  sovereignties, 
popes  and  much  else.  Presbyterians  carried 
out  the  revolt  against  earthly  sovereignties" 

Queen  Elizabeth  detested  "  presbytery " 
because  it  held  principles  inconsistent  with 
allegiance  to  her  crown. 

"She  knew  that  the  church  of  Geneva, 
which  the  Puritans  declared  to  be  their 
model,  was  not  only  essentially  republican, 
but  could  not  be  perfectly  established  except 
in  a  republic." 

"The  Presbyterian  clergy,"  writes  Mr. 
Hallam,  "  individually  and  collectively  dis 
played  the  intrepid  and  haughty  spirit  of 
the  English  Puritans.  Though  Elizabeth 
had,  from  policy,  abetted  the  Scottish  clergy 

34 


THE  REVOLUTION.  35 

in  their  attacks  upon  the  civil  administration, 
this  connection  itself  had  probably  given  her 
such  an  insight  into  their  temper  as  well  as 
their  influence  that  she  must  have  shuddered 
at  the  thought  of  seeing  a  republican  assembly 
substituted  for  her  faithful  satraps,  her  bish 
ops,  so  ready  to  do  her  bidding." 

King  James  detested  "presbytery."  In 
Scotland,  indeed,  he  had  professed  himself 
an  enthusiastic  Presbyterian.  In  the  general 
assembly,  with  uplifted  hands,  in  a  rapture 
of  enthusiasm,  he  exclaimed  : 

"  I  bless  God  that  I  was  born  in  such  a 
time  as  in  the  light  of  the  gospel,  and  in  such 
a  place  as  to  be  king  in  such  a  Kirk,  the  sin- 
cerest  Kirk  in  all  the  world. 

"  I  charge  you,  my  good  people — minis 
ters,  elders,  nobles,  gentlemen  and  barons — 
to  stand  to  your  purity,  and  I,  forsooth,  as 
long  as  I  brook  my  life  and  crown,  will  main 
tain  the  same  against  all  deadly." 

But  when,  having  become  king  of  England 
as  well  as  of  Scotland,  he  had  crossed  the 


36  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

border,  "he  found,"  to  quote  the  words  of 
Hallam,  "  a  very  different  race  of  churchmen, 
well  trained  in  the  supple  school  of  courtly 
conformity,  and  emulous  flatterers  of  both 
his  power  and  his  wisdom." 

In  this  state  of  things  the  king  soon  began 
to  waver.  His  despotic  instincts  taught  him 
where  his  interests  lay.  And  while  in  this 
transition  state  it  is  said  that  one  of  his 
sturdy  old  chaplains,  who  feared  God  too 
well  to  be  overmuch  afraid  of  kings,  treated 
His  Majesty  one  Sabbath  morning  to  a  ser 
mon  on  a  text  after  his  own  name,  James 
first,  sixth  (James  was  the  first  of  England 
and  the  sixth  of  Scotland)  :  "  He  that  waver- 
eth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea  driven  with  the 
wind  and  tossed." 

But  the  sermon  did  not  save  the  king. 
On  the  second  day  of  the  Hampton  Court 
Conference,  while  the  learned  and  excellent 
Dr.  Reynolds  was  speaking,  Bancroft,  bishop 
of  London,  fell  on  his  knees  and  begged  the 
king  to  stop  the  schismatic's  mouth.  As 


THE  REVOLUTION.  37 

Reynolds  proceeded  King  James  broke  in, 
exclaiming  in  his  profane  way  : 

"  You  are  aiming  at  a  Scots'  presbytery, 
which  agree th  as  well  with  monarchy  as  God 
and  the  devil.  Then  Jack  and  Tom  and 
Will  and  Dick  shall  meet,  and  at  their  plea 
sure  censure  me  and  my  council.  Then  Will 
shall  stand  up  and  say,  It  must  be  thus. 
Then  Dick  shall  reply  and  say,  Nay,  marry, 
but  we  will  have  it  thus;  and  therefore  I 
say,  The  king  shall  decide." 

Then  turning  to  the  sycophants  that  fawned 
on  him,  he  added :  "  I  will  make  them  con 
form  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land, 
or  else  worse — only  hang  them,  that's  all." 

On  the  third  day  the  king  advocated  the 
high  commission,  inquisitorial  oaths,  and 
Whitgift,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  ex 
claimed  : 

"  Your  Majesty  speaks  by  the  especial  as 
sistance  of  God's  Spirit." 

And  Bancroft,  bishop  of  London,  fell  on 
his  knees  and  said  : 


38  PJRESHYTERIANS  AND 

"My  heart  melteth  for  joy  because  God 
hath  given  England  such  a  king  as  since 
Christ's  time  hath  not  been." 

Charles  I.,  a  thorough  despot,  hated  pres 
bytery. 

The  thought  is  brought  out  by  Bancroft 
where,  incidentally,  he  speaks  of  "  The  po 
litical  character  of  Calvinism,  which  with 
one  consent  and  with  instinctive  judgment 
the  monarchs  of  that  day  feared  as  republi 
canism,  and  which  Charles  I.  declared  a  re 
ligion  unfit  for  a  gentleman,"  etc. 

"  Show  me,"  said  Charles,  "  any  precedent 
where  presbyterial  government  and  regal 
were  together  without  perpetual  rebellions. 
And  it  cannot  be  otherwise,  for  the  ground 
of  their  doctrine  is  anti-monarchical." 

The  king  had  a  congenial  instructor  in  his 
chaplain,  Peter  Heylin,  D.  D.,  who  wrote  a 
work  under  this  title:  "Aerius  Redivivus ; 
or,  The  History  of  the  Presbyterians,  contain 
ing  the  Beginning,  Progresse  and  Successes 
of  that  Active  Sect,  their  Oppositions  to  Mo- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  39 

narchical  Governments,"  etc.  The  volume 
ends  as  follows : 

"Thus  we  have  seen  the  dangerous  doc 
trines  and  positions,  the  secret  plots  and 
open  practices,  the  sacrileges,  spoils  and  ra 
pines,  the  tumults,  murders  and  seditions, 
the  horrid  treasons  and  rebellions,  which 
have  been  raised  by  the  Presbyterians  in 
most  parts  of  Christendom  for  one  hundred 
years  and  upward,"  etc.,  etc. 

Dean  Swift,  speaking  of  those  who  took 
refuge  in  Geneva  from  persecution  in  Eng 
land,  says : 

"When  they  returned,  they  were  grown 
so  fond  of  the  government  and  religion  of 
the  place  that  they  used  all  possible  en 
deavors  to  introduce  both  into  our  country. 
From  hence  they  proceeded  to  quarrel  with 
the  kingly  government  because  the  city  of 
Geneva,  to  which  their  fathers  had  flown  for 
refuge,  was  a  commonwealth  or  government 
of  the  people." 

The  poet  Dry  den,  a  double  apostate — an 


40  PRESBYTERIANS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

apostate  from  Cromwellian  republicanism  to 
the  despotism  of  Charles  II.,  and  then  from 
Puritanism  to  Romanism — wrote,  as  well  he 
might: 

"  Quickened  with  fire  below,  your  monsters  breed 
In  fenny  Holland  and  in  fruitful  Tweed  ; 
And,  like  the  first,  the  last  affects  to  be 
Drawn  from  the  dregs  of  a  democracy. 

"  But  as  the  poisons  of  the  deadliest  kind 
Are  to  their  own  unhappy  coasts  confined, 
So  presbytery,  in  its  pestilential  zeal, 
Can  flourish  only  in  a  commonweal" 


CHAPTER   IV. 

PRESBYTERIAN  SPIRIT  IN  HARMONY  WITH 
THAT  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

A  REASONABLY  thorough  discussion 
-^  of  this  theme  would  take  us  across 
the  ocean  and  back  through  past  centuries, 
since  our  earlier  forefathers  and  many  of 
the  noblest  of  our  Revolutionary  champions 
came  to  us  from  other  lands,  and  the  prin 
ciples  that  formed  the  life  of  the  American 
struggle  emerged  to  view  and  embodied 
themselves  in  action  on  many  a  foreign 
shore. 

"  A  young  French  refugee,"  writes  Mr. 
Bancroft,  "  skilled  alike  in  theology  and 
civil  law,  entering  the  republic  of  Geneva, 
and  conforming  its  ecclesiastical  discipline 
to  the  principles  of  republican  simplicity, 
established  a  party  of  which  Englishmen 


41 


42  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

became  members  and  New  England  the 
asylum. 

"Calvinism  was  revolutionary.  By  the 
side  of  the  eternal  mountains,  the  perennial 
snows  and  arrowy  rivers  of  Switzerland,  it 
established  a  government  without  a  king. 
It  was  powerful  in  France.  It  entered 
Holland,  inspiring  an  industrious  nation 
with  heroic  enthusiasm.  It  penetrated 
Scotland,  and  nerved  its  rugged  but  hearty 
envoy  to  resist  the  flatterers  of  Queen  Mary. 
It  infused  itself  into  England,  and  placed 
its  plebeian  sympathies  in  strong  resistance 
to  the  courtly  hierarchy.  Inviting  every 
4nan  to  read  the  Bible,  and  teaching  as  a 
divine  revelation  the  natural  equality  of 
man,  it  claimed  freedom  of  utterance. 

"  It  inspired  its  converts  to  cross  the  At 
lantic  and  sail  away  from  the  traditions  of 
the  Church,  from  hereditary  power,  from  the 
sovereignty  of  earthly  kings,  and  from  all 
dominion  but  that  of  the  Bible  and  such  as 
arose  from  natural  reason  and  equity." 


THE  REVOLUTION.  43 

In  1571  the  French  General  Assembly 
met  at  Rochelle,  with  Theodore  Beza  as 
moderator.  There  were  present  at  that  As 
sembly  the  queen  of  Navarre,  Henry,  the 
Bourbon  prince  of  Conde,  Prince  Louis, 
count  of  Nassau,  Admiral  Coligny  and 
other  lords  and  gentlemen.  That  General 
Assembly  represented  and  ruled  over  twen 
ty-one  hundred  and  fifty  churches.  In  some 
of  these  churches  there  were  ten  thousand 
members. 

Then  came  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo 
mew,  followed  by  the  revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes,  and  this  by  every  species  of  per 
secution  and  torture  of  which  the  Eomish 
brain  has  been  ever  so  fertile — plunder  of 
property,  burning  of  religious  books,  tearing 
of  children  from  their  parents,  dragging  of 
ministers  to  torture,  breaking  them  on  the 
wheel,  killing  them  and  throwing  their 
bleeding  corpses  to  dogs ;  some  were  roasted 
by  slow  fires,  some  were  gashed  with  knives 
and  some  torn  with  red-hot  pincers. 


44  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

"No  wonder  these  persecuted  ones  fled 
beyond  the  seas  and  sought  shelter  in  for 
eign  lands — five  hundred  thousand  of  them 
— some  in  England,  some  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  and  many  in  America.  Of 
these  last  some  went  to  New  England  and 
some  to  New  York,  but  South  Carolina 
became  their  chief  resort — fugitives  from 
Languedoc,  Rochelle  and  Bordeaux  and  St. 
Quentin  and  the  beautiful  valley  of  Tours. 

"  Their  church  was  in  Charleston ;  and 
thither  on  every  Lord's  day,  gathering  from 
their  plantations  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Cooper,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  tide,  they  might  be  seen, 
parents  with  their  children,  whom  no  bigot 
could  now  wrest  from  them,  making  their  way 
in  light  skiffs  through  the  tranquil  scene. 

"  Other  Huguenots  established  themselves 
on  the  banks  of  the  Santee,  in  a  region  which 
has  since  been  celebrated  for  affluence  and 
refined  hospitality. 

"  The  United  States  are  full  of  monuments 


THE  REVOLUTION.  45 

of  the  emigrations  from  France.  The  son  of  ^ 
Judith  Manigault  entrusted  the  vast  fortune 
he  had  acquired  to  the  service  of  the  coun 
try  that  had  adopted  his  mother.  The  hall 
in  Boston  where  the  eloquence  of  New  Eng 
land  rocked  the  infant  spirit  of  independence 
was  the  gift  of  the  son  of  a  Huguenot,  On 
our  frontier  State  the  name  of  the  oldest 
college  bears  witness  to  the  wise  liberality 
of  the  descendant  of  the  Huguenots. 

"  The  children  of  the  Calvinists  of  France 
have  reason  to  respect  the  memory  of  their 
ancestors." 

The  Netherlands,  from  the  earliest  times, 
had  shown  the  spirit  of  revolt  against  the 
sins  and  tyrannies  of  Rome,  and  hence  be 
came  a  land  of  refuge  for  the  persecuted 
in  other  European  countries.  And  in  suc 
cessive  generations,  Waldenses,  Albigenses, 
Bohemian  Brethren  and  others  fought  there 
the  fight  of  faith  and  leavened  the  general 
mind  with  Calvinistic  principles.  There  the 
Bible  became  the  text-book  of  the  people. 


46  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

Forbidden  to  worship  in  the  chapels,  they 
went  forth  on  the  Lord's  day  in  vast  pro 
cessions  into  the  fields ;  women  and  children 
gathered  in  a  circle  around  the  pulpit,  and 
around  them  the  men  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  where,  on  some  occasions  for  four 
hours,  they  listened  and  prayed  and  sung. 
Sometimes  their  preacher  came  galloping  to 
the  field  on  a  fleet-footed  and  spirited  horse, 
fired  a  pistol  and  preached  the  word  from 
the  saddle. 

In  1562  the  Netherlander^  drew  up  a 
Confession  of  Faith.  It  was  sent  to  Calvin 
for  his  approval,  and  then  printed  in  Dutch 
and  German.  It  confessedly  expressed  the 
views  generally  maintained  by  believers  dis 
persed  throughout  the  Low  Countries  who 
desired  to  live  according  to  the  purity  of  the 
holy  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

• 

Dutch  Presbyterian  Calvinism  contributed 
a  noble  band  of  heroes  to  the  cause  of  Amer 
ican  freedom. 

The  first  settlement  on  Manhattan  Island,  in 


THE  REVOLUTION.  47 

1623,  consisted  of  thirty  families,  chiefly  of 
Protestant  fugitives  from  the  well- scourged 
Belgian  provinces.  In  want  of  a  regular 
minister,  two  "  consolers  of  the  sick "  held 
religious  services  among  them.  In  1628  a 
clergyman  came,  an  elder  was  chosen  and  the 
Lord's  Supper  administered  to  fifty  souls. 
Under  the  protection  of  the  city  of  Amster 
dam,  a  body  of  Waldenses  emigrated  to 
New  Netherlands.  AVhen  the  Huguenot 
churches  at  Rochelle  were  razed,  emigrants 
came  in  such  numbers  that  public  docu 
ments  were  sometimes  issued  in  French  as 
well  as  in  Dutch  and  English,  and  the 
memory  of  the  old  Rochelle  perpetuated  by 
a  New  Rochelle  in  the  land  of  their  refuge. 

Of  Scotland,  the  laud  of  Knox  and  the 
Melvilles,  there  is  no  need  to  speak.  In 
their  struggles  with  tyranny,  the  Scottish 
leaders  were  driven  to  probe  to  the  bottom" 
the  grave  questions  of  the  rights  of  man 
and  the  prerogatives  of  princes;  and  in 
America  their  children,  the  heirs  of  their 


48  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

courage  and  principles,  found  a  sphere  for 
the  practical  application  of  those  principles 
and  the  exercise  of  that  courage. 

To  the  trumpet-call  of  the  Revolution  so 
universal  and  cordial  was  the  response  of 
Presbyterians  that  ardent  devotees  of  King 
George,  Lord  North  and  Parliament  could 
scarce  see  any  one  else  in  arms  for  the  colo 
nial  cause  but  Presbyterians. 

"Mr.  Galloway,  a  prominent  advocate  of 
the  government,"  writes  Dr.  Charles  Hodge, 
"ascribed  the  revolt  and  revolution  mainly 
to  the  action  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy  and 
laity  as  early  as  1764,  when  the  proposition 
for  a  general  synod  emanated  from  a  com 
mittee  appointed  for  the  purpose  in  Phila 
delphia.  This  was  a  great  exaggeration  and 
mistake,  but  it  indicates  the  close  connection 
between  the  civil  and  religious  part  of  the 
controversy." 

Another  monarchist  wrote : 

"  You  will  have  discovered  that  I  am  no 
friend  of  the  Presbyterians,  and  that  I  fix 


THE  REVOLUTION.  49 

all  the  blame  of  these  extraordinary  Ameri 
can  proceedings  upon  them. 

"  Believe  me,  sir,  the  Presbyterians  have 
been  the  chief  and  principal  instruments  in 
all  these  flaming  measures ;  and  they  always 
do  and  ever  will  act  against  government  from 
that  restless  and  turbulent  anti-monarchical 
spirit  which  has  always  distinguished  them 
everywhere  when  they  had,  or  by  any  means 
could  assume,  power,  however  illegally." 

Indeed,  so  prominent  and  conspicuous  ^was 
the  part  taken  by  Presbyterians  as  individ- 
uals  and  as  a  Church  in  the  Revolutionary 
struggle  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  rumors 
were  very  rife  that  projects  were  on  foot  to 
make  Presbyterianism  the  religion  of  the 
new  republic. 

As  we  read  in  Gillett's  history,  "The 
Presbyterian  Church  occupied  indeed  a 
highly  respectable  position.  Its  ministers 
had  been  chaplains  in  the  army.  Its  lead 
ing  man,  Dr.  Witherspoon,  had  been  a  leader 
in  the  General  Congress.  It  was,  in  fact, 


50  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  only  denomination  which,  from  position 
and  influence,  could  be  considered  in  the 
light  of  a  candidate  for  the  special  favors  of 
the  State." 

The  suspicion  that  such  state  connection 
was  aimed  at  by  the  Presbyterians  was  so 
strong  in  certain  quarters  that  the  synod  in 
1783  put  on  her  records  a  formal  and  em 
phatic  repudiation  of  any  such  purpose  or 
desire. 

Colonel  Barre  having  in  an  enthusiastic 
speech  in  parliament  styled  the  Americans 
"Sons  of  Liberty,"  the  colonists  caught  up 
the  title,  and  all  through  the  land  formed 
associations  of  "Sons  of  Liberty,"  and  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  of  New  York  went  by  the 
name  of  the  "Presbyterian  Junto." 

Let  us  quote  again  from  Bancroft : 

"  Just  after  the  peace  of  Paris  the  '  Heart 
of  Oak  Protestants'  came  over  in  great  num 
bers  and  settled  on  the  Catawba,  in  South 
Carolina.  In  Pennsylvania  they  peopled 
many  counties.  In  Virginia  they  went  up 


THE  REVOLUTION.  5.1 

the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah  and  extended 
themselves  into  the  upland  region  of  North 
Carolina.  Their  training  in  Ireland  had 
kept  the  spirit  of  liberty  as  fresh  in  their 
hearts  as  if  they  had  just  been  listening  to  the 
preaching  of  Knox  or  musing  over  the  polit 
ical  creed  of  the  Westminster  Assembly." 

"  We  shall  find  that  the  first  voice  pub 
licly  raised  in  America  to  dissolve  all  con 
nection  with  Great  Britain  came,  not  from 
the  Puritans  of  New  England,  nor  the  Dutch 
of  New  York,  nor  the  planters  of  Virginia, 
but  from  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians." 

"  In  1683,  just  after  the  grant  of  East  New 
Jersey,  a  proclamation  unparalleled  since 
Alva  drove  the  Netherlands  to  independence 
put  twenty  thousand  lives  at  the  mercy  of 
informers.  After  the  insurrection  of  Mon- 
mouth,  gibbets  were  erected  in  every  village 
and  soldiers  entrusted  with  the  execution  of 
the  laws;  scarce  a  Presbyterian  family  in 
Scotland  but  was  involved  in  proscriptions 
and  penalties." 


52  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

"Is  it  strange  that  Scotch  Presbyterians 
of  virtue,  education  and  courage,  blending  a 
love  of  popular  liberty  with  religious  enthu 
siasm,  hurried  to  East  New  Jersey  in  such 
numbers  as  to  give  to  the  rising  common 
wealth  a  character  which  a  century  and  a 
half  has  not  effaced  ?" 

"  In  a  few  years  a  law  of  the  common 
wealth  giving  force  to  the  common  principle 
of  the  New  England  and  the  Scottish  colo 
nists  established  a  system  of  free  schools." 

"  Hearts  glowed  more  warmly  on  the 
banks  of  the  Patapsco.  Its  convenient  prox 
imity  to  the  border  counties  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia  had  at  length  been  observed  by 
Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  and  other  bold 
and  industrious  men,  and  within  a  few  years 
they  had  created  the  town  of  Baltimore." 

When,  in  May,  1774,  the  messages  from 
the  old  committee  of  New  York,  Philadel 
phia  and  Boston  reached  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city  and  county  of  Baltimore,  they,  after 
consultation  with  the  men  of  Annapolis,  ad- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  53 

vocated  suspending  commerce  with  Great 
Britain  and  the  West  Indies,  chose  deputies 
to  a  colonial  convention,  recommended  a 
Continental  Congress,  and  sent  cheering 
words  to  their  *  friends'  at  Boston  as  suffer 
ers  in  the  common  cause.  The  supreme 
' Disposer  of  events/  they  wrote,  'will  termi 
nate  this  severe  trial  of  your  patience  in  a 
happy  confirmation  of  American  freedom.' 

"  For  this  spirited  conduct  Baltimore  was 
applauded  as  the  model,  and  its  example 
kindled  new  life  in  New  York." — Bancroft. 

Respecting  the  Stamp  Act  Mr.  Bancroft 
writes : 

"Our  mother  should  remember  that  we 
are  not  slaves,  said  the  Presbyterians  of 
Philadelphia." 

When  news  arrived  of  the  passage  through 
parliament  of  Townshend's  bill  taxing  tea, 
glass,  etc. — according  to  Bancroft — 

"Courage,  Americans!"  cried  one  of  the 
famed  "Triumvirate"  of  Presbyterian  law 
yers;  "liberty,  religion  and  science  are  on 


54  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  wing  to  these  shores.  The  finger  of  God 
points  out  a  mighty  empire  to  your  sons. 
The  savages  of  the  wilderness  were  never 
expelled  to  make  room  for  idolaters  and 
slaves.  The  land  we  possess  is  the  gift  of 
Heaven  to  our  fathers,  and  divine  Providence 
seems  to  have  decreed  it  to  our  latest  pos 
terity." 

"  The  day  dawns  when  the  foundations  of 
this  mighty  empire  are  to  be  laid  by  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  regular  American  Constitu 
tion.  All  that  has  hitherto  been  done  seems 
to  be  little  beside  the  collection  of  materials 
for  this  glorious  fabric.  The  transfer  of  the 
European  part  of  the  family  is  so  fast  and 
our  growth  so  swift  that  BEFORE  SEVEN 
YEAES  ROLL  OVER  OUR  HEADS  the  first  stone 
must  be  laid." 

Such  were  the  sentiments  of  the  "Presby 
terian  Triumvirate"  so  early  as  1768. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1775,  "  the  lords 
of  the  region"  where  the  "Watauga  and  the 
Forks  of  Holston  flow  into  the  Tennessee, 


THE  REVOLUTION.  55 

most  of  them  Presbyterians  of  Scotch-Irish 
descent,  met  in  council  near  Abington. 

"The  news  from  Congress  reached  them 
slowly,  but  on  receiving  it  the  spirit  of  free 
dom  swept  through  their  minds  as  naturally 
as  the  ceaseless  forest  wind  sighs  through  the 
firs  down  the  sides  of  the  Black  Mountains. 
They  adhered  unanimously  to  the  association 
of  Congress,  and  named  a  committee,  with 
Charles  Gumming  s,  their  minister,  as  its 
head. 

"  We  explored,"  said  the  committee,  "  our 
uncultivated  wilderness,  "bordering  on  many 
nations  of  savages  and  surrounded  by  moun 
tains  almost  inaccessible.  But  even  to  these 
remote  regions  the  hand  of  power  hath  pur 
sued  us  to  strip  us  of  that  liberty  and  prop 
erty  with  which  God,  nature  and  the  rights 
of  humanity  have  vested  us.  We  are  will 
ing  to  contribute  all  in  our  power,  if  applied 
constitutionally,  but  we  cannot  think  of  sub 
mitting  our  liberty  or  property  to  a  venal 
British  parliament  or  a  corrupt  ministry. 


56  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

"We  are  deliberately  and  resolutely  de 
termined  never  to  surrender  any  of  our  in 
estimable  privileges  to  any  power  upon  earth 
but  at  the  expense  of  our  lives.  These  are 
our  real  though  unpolished  sentiments  of 
liberty  and  loyalty,  and  in  them  we  are  re 
solved  to  live  and  die."  * 

The  Hon.  Gulian  C.  Verplanck  of  New 
York,  in  a  public  address,  traced  the  origin 
of  our  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the 
National  Covenant  of  Scotland. 

Mr.  William  B.  Reed  of  Philadelphia, 
himself  an  Episcopalian,  wrote :  "A  Presby 
terian  royalist  was  a  thing  unheard  of.  The 
debt  of  gratitude  which  independent  Amer 
ica  owes  to  the  dissenting  clergy  and  laity 
never  can  be  paid." 

"The  rigid  Presbyterians,"  writes  Mr. 
Bancroft,  "proved  in  America  the  sup 
porters  of  religious  freedom.  They  were 
true  to  the  spirit  of  the  great  English  dis 
senter  who  hated  all  laws  that  were  formed 

*  Bancroft. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  57 

"To  stretch  the  conscience,  and  to  bind 
The  native  freedom  of  the  mind." 

"  In  Virginia  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover 
took  the  lead  for  liberty,  and  demanded  the 
abolition  of  the  establishment  of  the  Angli 
can  Church  and  the  civil  equality  of  every 
denomination." 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  WESTMORELAND  COUNTY  RESOLUTIONS. 

TTOW  thoroughly  Presbyterian  in  origin 
*--'-  and  character  was  the  population  scat 
tered  through  Western  Pennsylvania  is 
known  to  all  familiar  with  the  early  history 
of  the  State.  At  the  time  of  the  Kevolu- 
tion,  Westmoreland  county  embraced  nearly 
all  the  territory  claimed  by  Pennsylvania 
west  of  the  mountains. 

When  the  news  of  the  opening  of  the  war 
at  Lexington  and  Concord  reached  the  peo 
ple  of  Westmoreland,  they  came  together  at 
Hanna's  Town  on  the  16th  of  May,  1776, 
and  passed  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  parlia 
ment  of  Great  Britain  by  several  late  acts 
have  declared  the  inhabitants  of  Massachu- 

58 


THE  REVOLUTION.  59 

setts  Bay  to  be  in  rebellion,  and  the  ministry, 
by  endeavoring  to  enforce  those  acts,  have 
attempted  to  reduce  the  said  inhabitants  to 
a  more  wretched  state  of  slavery  than  ever 
before  existed  in  any  state  or  country.  Not 
content  with  violating  their  constitutional 
and  chartered  privileges,  they  would  strip 
them  of  the  rights  of  humanity,  exposing 
lives  to  the  wanton  and  unpunishable  spirit 
of  a  licentious  soldiery,  and  depriving  them 
of  the  very  means  of  subsistence. 

"Resolved,  unanimously,  That  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  but  the  same  system  of 
tyranny  and  oppression  will  (should  it  meet 
with  success  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay)  be 
extended  to  every  other  part  of  America.  It 
is  therefore  become  the  indispensable  duty 
of  every  American,  of  every  man  who  has 
any  public  virtue  or  love  for  his  country,  or 
any  bowels  for  posterity,  by  every  means 
which  God  has  put  in  his  power,  to  resist 
and  oppose  the  execution  of  it ;  that  for  us, 
we  will  be  ready  to  oppose  it  with  our  lives 


60  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

and  fortunes.  And  the  better  to  enable  us 
to  accomplish  it,  we  will  immediately  form 
ourselves  into  a  military  body  to  consist  of 
companies  to  be  made  up  out  of  the  several 
townships  under  the  following  association, 
which  is  declared  to  be  the  Association  of 
Westmoreland  County. 

"  Possessed  with  the  most  unshaken  loyalty 
to  His  Majesty  King  George  III.,  whom  we 
acknowledge  to  be  our  lawful  and  rightful 
king,  and  who  we  wish  may  long  be  the  be 
loved  sovereign  of  a  free  and  happy  people 
throughout  the  whole  British  empire,  we  de 
clare  to  the  world  that  we  do  not  mean  to 
deviate  from  the  loyalty  which  we  hold  it 
to  be  our  bounden  duty  to  observe ;  but 
animated  by  the  love  of  liberty,  it  is  no  less 
our  duty  to  maintain  and  defend  our  just 
rights  (which  with  sorrow  we  have  seen  of 
late  wantonly  violated  in  many  instances  by 
a  wicked  ministry  and  a  corrupt  parliament) 
and  transmit  them  entire  to  our  posterity,  for 


THE  REVOLUTION.  61 

which  purpose  we  do  agree  and  associate 
ourselves  together : 

"First.  To  arm  and  form  ourselves  into  a 
regiment  or  regiments,  and  choose  officers  to 
command  us  in  such  proportion  as  shall  be 
thought  necessary. 

"Second.  We  will,  with  alacrity,  endeavor 
to  make  ourselves  masters  of  the  manual  ex 
ercise  and  such  evolutions  as  may  be  neces 
sary  to  enable  us  to  act  as  a  body  with  con 
cert,  and  to  that  end  we  will  meet  at  such 
times  and  places  as  shall  be  appointed,  either 
for  the  companies  or  the  regiments,  by  the 
officers  commanding  each  when  chosen. 

"Third.  That  should  our  country  be  in 
vaded  by  a  foreign  enemy,  or  should  troops 
be  sent  from  Great  Britain  to  enforce  the 
late  arbitrary  acts  of  its  parliament,  we  will 
cheerfully  submit  to  military  discipline,  and 
to  the  utmost  of  our  power  resist  and  oppose 
them,  or  either  of  them,  and  we  will  coincide 
with  any  plan  that  may  be  formed  for  the 


62  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

defence  of  America  in  general  or  Pennsyl 
vania  in  particular. 

"Fourth.  That  we  do  not  wish  or  desire 
any  innovation,  but  only  that  things  may 
be  restored  to  and  go  on  in  the  same  way 
as  before  the  era  of  the  Stamp  Act,  when 
Boston  grew  great  and  America  was  happy. 
As  a  proof  of  this  disposition,  we  will  quietly 
submit  to  the  laws  by  which  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  be  governed  before  that  period, 
and  will,  in  our  several  or  associate  capaci 
ties,  be  ready  when  called  on  to  assist  the 
civil  magistrate  in  carrying  the  same  into 
execution. 

"Fifth.  That  when  the  British  parlia 
ment  shall  have  repealed  their  late  obnox 
ious  statutes,  and  shall  have  receded  from 
their  claim  to  tax  us  and  make  laws  for 
us  in  every  instance,  or  when  some  general 
plan  of  union  and  reconstruction  has  been 
formed  and  accepted  by  America,  this  our 
association  shall  be  dissolved ;  but  till  then 
it  shall  remain  in  full  force,  and  to  the  ob- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  63 

servation  of  it  we  bind  ourselves  by  every 
thing  dear  and  sacred  amongst  men.  No 
licensed  murder!  No  famine  introduced  by 
law !" 

That  the  meeting  was  effective,  and  that 
the  association  speedily  developed  into  com 
panies  and  regiments,  is  gathered  from  a 
letter  from  Arthur  St.  Glair,  who  lived  in 
the  Ligonier  Valley,  twenty  miles  from  Ban 
na's  Town,  and  who,  on  the  25th  of  May, 
wrote  at  length  to  Governor  Penn  about  the 
troublesome  boundary  question,  and  made 
mention  of  the  patriotic  movement  in  the 
following  paragraph : 

"  We  have  nothing  but  musters  and  com 
mittees  all  over  the  country,  and  everything 
seems  to  be  running  into  the  greatest  con 
fusion.  If  some  conciliating  plan  is  not 
adopted  by  the  Congress,  America  has  seen 
her  golden  days ;  they  may  return,  but  they 
will  be  preceded  by  scenes  of  horror.  An 
association  is  formed  in  this  county  for  the 
defence  of  American  liberty.  I  got  a  clause 


64    PRESBYTERIANS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

added  by  which  they  bind  themselves  to  as 
sist  the  civil  magistrates  in  the  execution  of 
the  laws  they  have  been  accustomed  to  be 
governed  by." 

The  Hanna's  Town  resolutions  on  a  first 
reading  scarcely  seem  to  deserve  the  honor 
of  a  centennial  celebration.  There  is  a  curi 
ously  mixed  flavor  of  loyalty  and  rebellion 
in  them,  and  they  certainly  do  not  constitute 
a  declaration  of  independence,  as  has  been 
claimed.  When  read  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  the  times  when  they  were  adopted, 
however,  it  will  be  found  that  they  were  sin 
gularly  bold  and  defiant.  No  public  gather 
ing  held  in  the  colonies  during  the  year  1775 
went  further  in  the  direction  of  independence 
unless  it  was  the  Mecklenburg  meeting.  The 
farmers  of  Westmoreland  really  laid  down 
an  ultimatum  to  the  British  government,  and 
pledged  themselves  to  resist  its  authority  by 
force  of  arms  until  their  demands  for  the 
repeal  of  all  oppressive  measures  were  com 
plied  with. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  MECKLENBURG  DECLARATION. 

AF  the  population  of  Mecklenburg  county 
^  and  the  adjacent  regions  Washington  Ir 
ving  writes  in  his  "  Life  of  Washington :" 

"  In  this  part  of  the  State  was  a  hardy 
Presbyterian  stock,  the  Scotch-Irish,  as  they 
were  called,  having  emigrated  from  Scotland 
to  Ireland  and  thence  to  America,  and  were 
said  to  possess  the  impulsiveness  of  the  Irish 
man  with  the  dogged  resolution  of  the  Cove 
nanter.  The  early  history  of  the  colonies 
abounds  with  instances  of  this  spirit  among 
the  people.  '  They  always  behaved  inso 
lently  to  their  governors/  complained  Gov 
ernor  Barrington  in  1731 ;  '  some  they  have 
driven  out  of  the  country,  at  other  times  they 
set  up  a  government  of  their  own  choice  sup 
ported  by  men  under  arms/  " 


65 


66  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

The  following  is  Mr.  Bancroft's  account  of 
the  "Mecklenburg  Declaration,"  as  given  in 
the  seventh  volume  of  his  "  History  of  the 
United  States,"  beginning  at  page  370 : 

"  The  people  of  the  county  of  Mecklenburg 
had  carefully  observed  the  progress  of  the 
controversy  with  Britain,  and  during  the 
winter  political  meetings  had  repeatedly  been 
held  in  Charlotte.  That  town  had  been 
chosen  for  the  seat  of  the  Presbyterian  col 
lege  which  the  legislature  of  North  Carolina 
had  chartered,  but  which  the  king  had  dis 
allowed  ;  and  it  was  the  centre  of  the  culture 
of  that  part  of  the  province.  The  number 
of  houses  in  the  village  was  not  more  than 
twenty,  but  the  district  was  already  well  set 
tled  by  herdsmen,  who  lived  apart  on  their 
farms. 

"  Some  time  in  May,  1775,  they  received 
the  news  of  the  address  which  in  the  preced 
ing  February  had  been  presented  to  the  king 
by  both  houses  of  parliament,  and  which  de 
clared  the  American  colonies  to  be  in  a  state 


THE  REVOLUTION.  67 

of  actual  rebellion.  This  was  to  them  the 
evidence  that  the  crisis  in  American  affairs 
was  come,  and  the  people  proposed  among 
themselves  to  abrogate  all  dependence  on 
the  royal  authority.  But  the  militia  compa 
nies  were  sworn  to  allegiance ;  and  '  how/  it 
was  objected,  'can  we  be  absolved  from  our 
oath  ?'  '  The  oath/  it  was  answered,  '  binds 
only  while  the  king  protects.'  At  the  in 
stance  of  Thomas  Polk,  the  commander  of 
the  militia  of  the  county,  two  delegates  from 
each  company  were  called  together  in  Char 
lotte  as  a  representative  committee.  Before 
their  consultations  had  ended,  the  message  of 
the  innocent  blood  shed  at  Lexington  came 
up  from  Charleston  and  inflamed  their  zeal. 
They  were  impatient  that  their  remoteness 
forbade  their  direct  activity ;  had  it  been 
possible,  they  would  have  sent  a  hundred 
bullocks  from  their  fields  to  the  poor  of 
Boston.  No  minutes  of  the  committee  are 
known  to  exist,  but  the  result  of  their  delib 
erations,  framed  with  peculiar  skill,  precision 


68  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

of  language  and  calm  comprehensiveness,  re 
mains  as  the  monument  of  their  wisdom  and 
courage.  Of  the  delegates  to  that  mem 
orable  assembly  the  name  of  Ephraim  Bre- 
vard  should  be  remembered  with  honor  by 
his  countrymen.  He  was  one  of  a  numerous 
family  of  patriot  brothers,  and  himself  in 
the  end  fell  a  martyr  to  the  public  cause. 
Trained  in  the  college  at  Princeton,  ripened 
among  the  brave  Presbyterians  of  Middle 
Carolina,  he  digested  the  system  which  was 
then  adopted,  and  which  formed  in  effect  a 
declaration  of  independence  as  well  as  a 
complete  system  of  government.  'All  laws 
and  commissions  confirmed  by  or  derived 
from  the  authority  of  the  king  or  parlia 
ment/  such  are  the  bold  but  well-considered 
words  of  these  daring  statesmen,  '  are  an 
nulled  and  vacated ;  all  commissions,  civil 
and  military,  heretofore  granted  by  the 
Crown  to  be  exercised  in  the  colonies,  are 
void;  the  provincial  Congress  of  each  prov 
ince,  under  the  direction  of  the  great  Conti- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  69 

nental  Congress,  is  invested  with  all  legislative 
and  executive  powers  within  the  respective 
provinces,  and  no  other  legislative  or  execu 
tive  power  does  or  can  exist  at  this  time  in 
any  part  of  these  colonies.  As  all  former 
laws  are  now  suspended  in  this  province  and 
the  Congress  has  not  yet  provided  others,  we 
judge  it  necessary  for  the  better  preserva 
tion  of  good  order  to  form  certain  rules  and 
regulations  for  the  internal  government  of 
this  county  until  laws  shall  be  provided  for 
us  by  the  Congress/ 

"  In  accordance  with  these  principles,  the 
freemen  of  the  county  formed  themselves 
into  nine  military  companies  and  elected 
their  own  officers.  Judicial  powers  were 
conferred  on  men  to  be  singled  out  by  the 
vote  of  the  companies,  two  from  each  of 
them,  the  whole  number  of  eighteen  consti 
tuting  a  court  of  appeal.  The  tenure  alike 
of  military  and  civil  officers  was  '  the  plea 
sure  of  their  several  constituents.'  All  pub 
lic  and  county  taxes,  all  quit-rents  to  the 


70  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

Crown  were  sequestered,  and  it  was  voted 
that  persons  receiving  new  commissions  from 
the  king  or  exercising  old  ones  should  be 
dealt  with  as  enemies  of  the  country. 

"The  resolves  were  made  binding  on  all, 
and  were  to  be  enforced  till  the  provincial 
Congress  should  provide  otherwise,  or,  what 
they  knew  wrould  never  take  place,  till  the 
British  parliament  should  resign  its  arbitrary 
pretensions  with  respect  to  America.  At 
the  same  time,  the  militia  companies  were 
directed  to  provide  themselves  with  arms, 
and  Thomas  Polk  and  Joseph  Kenedy  were 
specially  appointed  to  purchase  powder,  lead 
and  flints. 

"  Before  the  month  of  May  had  come  to 
an  end  the  resolutions  were  signed  by 
Ephraim  Brevard  as  clerk  of  the  committee, 
and  were  adopted  by  the  people  with  the  de 
termined  enthusiasm  which  springs  from  the 
combined  influence  of  the  love  of  liberty  and 
of  religion.  Thus  was  Mecklenburg  county, 
in  North  Carolina,  separated  from  the  Brit- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  71 

ish  empire.  The  resolves  were  transmitted 
with  all  haste  to  be  printed  in  Charleston, 
and  as  they  spread  through  the  South  they 
startled  the  royal  governors  of  Georgia  and 
North  Carolina,  They  were  despatched  by 
a  messenger  to  the  Continental  Congress  that 
the  world  might  know  their  authors  had  re 
nounced  their  allegiance  to  the  king  of  Great 
Britain,  and  had  constituted  a  government 
for  themselves. 

"  The  messenger  stopped  on  his  way  at 
Salisbury,  and  there,  to  a  crowd  round  the 
court-house,  the  resolves  were  read  and  ap 
proved.  The  wester  Q  counties  were  the  most 
populous  part  of  North  Carolina,  and  the 
royal  governor  had  flattered  himself  and  the 
king  with  the  fullest  assurance  of  their  sup 
port.  'I  have  no  doubt/  said  he,  'that  I 
might  command  their  best  services  at  a  word 
on  an  emergency.  I  consider  I  have  the 
means  in  my  own  hands  to  maintain  the  sov 
ereignty  of  this  country  to  my  royal  master 
in  all  events.'  And  now  he  was  oblige.d  to 


72  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

transmit  the  deliberate,  consistent  and  well- 
considered  resolutions  of  Mecklenburg,  which 
he  described  as  the  boldest  of  all,  '  most  trait 
orously  declaring  the  entire  dissolution  of 
the  laws  and  constitution  and  setting  up  a 
system  of  rule  and  regulation  subversive  of 
His  Majesty's  government/ ' 

The  full  text  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declara 
tion  is  as  follows : 

"  1.  Resolved,  That  whosoever,  directly  or 
indirectly,  abetted,  or  in  any  way,  form  or 
manner  countenanced,  the  un chartered  and 
dangerous  invasion  of  our  rights,  as  claimed 
by  Great  Britain,  is  an  enemy  to  this  coun 
try,  to  America,  and  to  the  inherent  and  in 
alienable  rights  of  man. 

"  2.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  citizens  of 
Mecklenburg  county,  do  hereby  dissolve  the 
political  bonds  which  have  connected  us  to 
the  mother  country,  and  hereby  absolve  our 
selves  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British 
Crown,  and  abjure  all  political  connection, 
contract  or  association  with  that  nation,  who 


THE  REVOLUTION.  73 

have  wantonly  trampled  on  our  rights  and 
liberties  and  inhumanly  shed  the  blood  of 
American  patriots  at  Lexington. 

"  3.  Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare 
ourselves  a  free  and  independent  people;  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and 
self-governing  association,  under  the  control 
of  no  power  other  than  that  of  our  God  and 
the  general  government  of  the  Congress ;  to 
the  maintenance  of  which  we  solemnly  pledge 
to  each  other  our  mutual  co-operation  and 
our  lives,  our  fortunes  and  our  most  sacred 
honor. 

"  4.  Resolved,  That  as  we  now  acknowledge 
the  existence  and  control  of  no  law  or  legal 
officer,  civil  or  military,  within  this  county, 
we  do  hereby  ordain  and  adopt  as  a  rule  of 
life,  all,  each  and  every  of  our  former  laws, 
wherein,  nevertheless,  the  Crown  of  Great 
Britain  never  can  be  considered  as  holding 
rights,  privileges,  immunities  or  authorities 
therein. 

"5.  Resolved,  That  it  is  further  desired  that 


74  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

all,  each  and  every  military  officer  in  this 
county  is  hereby  reinstated  in  his  former 
command  and  authority,  he  acting  conform 
ably  to  these  regulations.  And  that  every 
member  present  of  this  delegation  shall 
henceforth  be  a  civil  officer,  namely:  A 
justice  of  the  peace  in  the  character  of  a 
'  committeeman,'  to  issue  process,  hear  and 
determine  all  matters  of  controversy  accord 
ing  to  the  said  adopted  laws,  and  to  preserve 
peace,  union  and  harmony  in  said  county, 
and  to  use  every  exertion  to  spread  the  love 
of  country  and  fire  of  freedom  throughout 
America,  until  a  more  general  and  organ 
ized  government  be  established  in  this  prov- 


On  December  7, 1819,  Captain  James  Jack 
certified  that  he  was  appointed  to  carry  the 
declaration  to  Congress;  that  he  stopped  at 
Salisbury,  where  Colonel  Kennon,  an  at 
torney,  read  the  resolutions  in  open  court  ; 
that  he  only  heard  of  one  person,  a  Mr. 
Beard,  who  opposed  them ;  and  that  he  went 


THE  REVOLUTION.  75 

on  to  Philadelphia  and  delivered  the  decla 
ration. 

The  royal  governor  of  the  province,  on  the 
30th  of  June,  1775,  wrote  as  follows  to  the 
colonial  secretary  of  Great  Britain : 

"The  resolves  of  the  committee  of  Meck 
lenburg,  which  your  lordship  will  find  in  the 
enclosed  newspaper,  surpass  all  the  horrid 
and  treasonable  publications  the  inflamma 
tory  spirits  of  this  continent  have  yet  pro 
duced  ;  and  your  lordship  may  depend  its 
authors  and  abettors  will  not  escape  my 
notice  whenever  my  hands  are  sufficiently 
strengthened  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  the 
lost  authority  of  the  government. 

"A  copy  of  these  resolves,  I  am  informed, 
was  sent  off  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia 
as  soon  as  they  were  passed  in  the  committee." 

Then,  on  the  8th  of  August,  1775,  he 
issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  said : 

"Whereas  I  have  seen  a  most  infamous 
publication  in  the  '  Cape  Fear  Mercury,'  im 
porting  to  be  the  resolves  of  a  set  of  people 


76  PRESSYTEEIANS  AND 

styling  themselves  a  Committee  of  the  County 
of  Mecklenburg,  most  traitorously  declaring 
the  entire  dissolution  of  laws,  government  and 
constitution  of  this  country,  and  setting  up  a 
system  of  rule  and  regulation  repugnant  to 
the  laws  and  subversive  of  His  Majesty's 
government." 

The  coincidence  of  language  and  phrase 
between  the  Mecklenburg  and  national 
declarations  will  surprise  no  one  familiar 
with  the  political  writings  and  speeches  of 
those  times,  where  such  phrases  constantly 
recur. 

The  silence  of  Congress  respecting  this 
declaration,  and  the  fact  that  both  Jefferson 
and  John  Adams  knew  nothing  of  it,  are 
easily  explained.  The  messenger  who  con 
veyed  to  Philadelphia  the  report  of  the 
Mecklenburg  proceedings  delivered  that  re 
port  to  the  North  Carolina  delegates.  It 
was  the  business  of  these  delegates  to  pre 
sent  this  to  Congress.  But  as  Congress  at 
this  time  shrank  from  the  thought  of  in- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  77 

dependence,  and  three  months  after  this 
unanimously  and  in  the  humblest  terms 
petitioned  King  George  for  redress  of 
grievances,  what  more  likely  than  that  the 
Carolina  delegates  looked  upon  the  Meck 
lenburg  movement  as  a  hasty  act  of  a  few 
enthusiasts,  and  refrained  from  so  much  as 
mentioning  the  matter  in  Congress  ? 

As  late  as  August,  1775,  Mr.  Jefferson 
said :  "  I  would  rather  be  in  dependence 
on  Great  Britain,  properly  limited,  than  on 
any  nation  on  earth,  or  than  on  no  nation.7' 

Washington  said  in  May,  1776,  "When 
I  took  command  of  this  army  (June,  1775), 
I  abhorred  the  idea  of  independence" 

As  to  John  Adams,  so  far  as  we  can 
learn  from  Bancroft,  his  first  public  word 
in  favor  of  independence  was  long  subse 
quent  to  May,  1775. 

Whatever,  then,  is  uncertain,  this  is  un 
questionable,  that  the  Presbyterians  of  Meck 
lenburg  in  May,  1775,  far  in  advance  of 
Congress  and  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  the 


78  PRESBYTERIANS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

country,  passed  resolutions  which  the  royal 
governor  Martin,  in  June  of  that  year,  could 
very  justly  stigmatize  as  "  treasonable,"  and 
in  August  following  could  proclaim  as  "  de 
claring  the  dissolution  of  the  laws,  govern 
ment  and  constitution  of  the  country,  and 
the  setting  up  of  a  system  of  rule  and  reg 
ulation  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  subver 
sive  of  His  Majesty's  government." 

Mr.  Bancroft  is  more  than  justified  in  his 
declaration  that  "  the  first  voice  publicly 
raised  in  America  to  dissolve  all  connection 
with  Great  Britain  came,  not  from  the  Puri 
tans  of  New  England,  nor  the  Dutch  of  New 
York,  nor  the  planters  of  Virginia,  but  from 
the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians" 


CHAPTER  VII. 
PRESBYTERIAN  ZEAL  AND  SUFFERING. 


rpHE  zeal  of  Presbyterians  during  the  war 
exposed  them  to  special  cruelties  at  the 
hands  of  the  British  soldiery.  Among  the 
foremost  patriots  of  that  day  was  the  Eev. 
James  Caldwell,  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  of  Elizabethtown,  N.  J. 

"Descended  from  the  Huguenots,"  writes 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Sprague  in  his  "Annals,"  "and 
imbibing  the  spirit  of  the  Scotch  Covenant 
ers,  he  may  be  said  to  have  inherited  a  feel 
ing  of  opposition  to  tyrants.  Connected  with 
his  congregation  were  the  Daytons,  the  Og- 
dens,  Francis  Barber,  William  Crane,  Oliver 
Spencer,  Elias  Boudinot,  William  Living 
ston,  Abram  Clark,  and  others  who  became 
eminent  for  their  wisdom,  piety,  valor  and 
patriotism/'' 

79 


80  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

When  the  news  of  the  passage  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  reached  the  New 
Jersey  brigade,  of  which  he  was  chaplain, 
the  men  were  called  together,  and  Parson 
Caldwell  gave  this  toast :  "  Harmony,  honor 
and  all  prosperity  to  the  free  and  independ 
ent  United  States  of  America;  wise  legisla 
tors,  brave  and  victorious  armies,  both  by  sea 
and  land,  to  the  United  States  of  America." 
His  church  was  given  up  to  be  used  as  a 
hospital  for  the  sick.  Its  bell  sounded  the 
alarm  on  the  approach  of  the  foe. 

In  an  attack  upon  Springfield,  when  the 
wadding  of  the  patriots  gave  out,  Caldwell 
ran  to  the  Presbyterian  church ;  and  return 
ing  with  his  arms  and  pockets  filled  with 
"Watts'  Psalms  and  Hymns,"  he  scattered 
them  among  the  soldiers,  exclaiming,  "  Now, 
boys,  give  them  Watts !" 

In  vexation  at  his  patriotism,  British  of 
ficers  offered  large  rewards  for  his  capture. 
Failing  in  this,  the  British  soldiery  set  fire  to 
his  church  and  shot  his  wife  through  the  win- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  81 

dow  of  her  own  room  in  the  midst  of  her 
nine  children,  dragged  her  bleeding  corpse 
into  the  street  and  laid  the  house  and  other 
surrounding  buildings  in  ashes.  The  follow 
ing  poem  by  Bret  Harte  tells  the  story : 

"  Here's  the  spot.     Look  around  you.     Above  on  the  height 
Lay  the  Hessians  encamped.     By  that  church  on  the  right 
Stood  the  gaunt  Jersey  farmers.     And  here  ran  a  wall. 
You  may  dig  anywhere,  and  you'll  turn  up  a  ball. 
Nothing  more.    Grasses  spring,  waters  run,  flowers  blow 
Pretty  much  as  they  did  ninety-three  years  ago. 

"  Nothing  more  did  I  say  ?     Stay  one  moment ;  you've  heard 
Of  Caldwell,  the  parson,  who  once  preached  the  word 
Down  at  Springfield  ?    What,  no  ?     Come,  that's  bad !    Why, 

he  had 

All  the  Jerseys  aflame.     And  they  gave  him  the  name 
Of  the  '  rebel  high  priest.'     He  stuck  in  their  gorge, 
For  he  loved  the  Lord  God,  and  he  hated  King  George. 

"  He  had  cause,  you  may  say.     When  the  Hessians  that  day 
Marched  up  with  Knyph °usen,  they  stopped  on  the  way 
At  the  '  Farms,'  where  his  wife,  with  a  child  in  her  arms, 
Sat  alone  in  the  house.     How  it  happened  none  knew 
But  God  and  that  one  of  the  hireling  crew 
Who  fired  the  shot.     Enough !  there  she  lay,    . 
And  Caldwell  the  chaplain,  her  husband,  away. 

"  Did  he  preach  ?  did  he  pray?     Think  of  him  as  you  stand 
By  the  old  church  to-day ;  think  of  him  and  that  band 
6 


82  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

Of  militant  ploughboys.     See  the  smoke  and  the  heat 
Of  that  reckless  advance,  of  that  straggling  retreat! 
Keep  the  ghost  of  that  wife,  foully  slain,  in  your  view, 
And  what  could  you,  what  should  you,  what  would  you  do  ? 

"  Why,  just  what  he  did.     They  were  left  in  the  lurch 
For  the  want  of  more  wadding.     He  ran  to  the  church, 
Broke  the  door,  stripped  the  pews,  and  dashed  out  in  the 

road 

With  his  arms  full  of  hymn-books,  and  threw  down  his  load 
At  their  feet.     Then  above  all  the  shouting  and  shots 
Kang  his  voice :  '  Put  Watts  into  'em  !  boys,  give  'em  Watts !' 

"  And  they  did.     That  is  all.     Grasses  spring,  flowers  blow 
Pretty  much  as  they  did  ninety-three  years  ago. 
You  may  dig  anywhere,  and  you'll  turn  up  a  ball, 
But  not  always  a  hero  like  this ;  and  that's  all." 

Dr.  Thomas  Smyth  writes:  "The  battles 
of  the  Cowpens,  of  King's  Mountain,  and 
also  the  severe  skirmish  known  as  Huck's 
Defeat,  are  celebrated  as  giving  a  turning- 
point  to  the  contests  of  the  Revolution.  Gen 
eral  Morgan,  who  commanded  at  the  Cow- 
pens,  was  a  Presbyterian  elder.  General 
Pickeris,  who  made  all  the  arrangements  for 
the  battle,  was  a  Presbyterian  elder,  and 
nearly  all  under  their  command  were  Pres- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  83 

byterians.  In  the  battle  of  King's  Mountain 
Colonel  Campbell,  Colonel  James  Williams, 
Colonel  Cleaveland,  Colonel  Shelby  and  Col 
onel  Sevier  were  all  Presbyterian  elders,  and 
the  body  of  their  troops  were  from  Presby 
terian  settlements.  At  Huck's  Defeat,  in 
York,  Colonel  Bratton  and  Major  Dickson 
were  both  elders  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Major  Samuel  Morrow,  who  was  with  Colonel 
Sumpter  in  four  engagements  and  took  part 
in  many  other  engagements,  was  for  about 
fifty  years  a  ruling  elder  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church. 

"  It  may  also  be  mentioned  that  Marion, 
Huger    and    other    distinguished    men    of 
Revolutionary    memory    were    of  Huguenot 
—that  is,  of  full-blooded  Presbyterian — de 
scent." 

On  this  point  we  find  the  following  in  the 
lamented  Gillett's  "  History  of  the  Presbyte 
rian  Church  in  the  United  States:" 

"  In  initiating  the  Revolution  and  in  sus 
taining  the  patriotic  resistance  of  their  conn- 


84  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

trymen  to  illegal  tyranny,  the  ministers  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  bore  a  conspicuous, 
and  even  foremost,  part.  Throughout  that 
most  trying  and  disastrous  period  through 
which  the  Church  and  country  had  as  yet 
been  called  to  pass  they  proved  themselves 
alike  faithful  to  both. 

"They  preached  the  duty  of  resisting 
tyrants.  They  cheered  their  people  in  the 
dreary  period  of  conflict  by  inspiring  lofty 
trust  in  the  God  of  nations. 

"Among  those  who  advocated  the  cause 
of  the  colonists  and  strengthened  the  patri 
otic  zeal  by  Christian  principle  were  Dr. 
Witherspoon,  Patrick  Alison  in  Baltimore, 
William  Tennent  in  Charlestown,  George 
Duffield  in  Philadelphia,  John  Miller  at 
Dover,  James  Waddell  and  John  Blair 
Smith  in  Virginia. 

"John  Carmichael  preached  at  their  re 
quest  to  the  militia  of  Lancaster.  The  dis 
course  of  Miller  of  Dover,  who  was  bold  in 
the  expression*  of  his  patriotic  ardor,  was 


THE  REVOLUTION.  85 

especially  remarkable.  Several  days  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  he  so  far 
anticipated  the  spirit  of  that  decisive  mea 
sure  as  to  address  his  people  from  that  sig 
nificant  text,  '  We  have  no  part  in  David, 
nor  any  inheritance  in  the  son  of  Jesse :  to 
your  tents,  O  Israel  !' 

"  Robert  Davidson,  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  church  of  Philadelphia  at  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  preached  before 
several  military  companies  from  the  text, 
'  For  there  fell  down  many  slain  because 
the  war  was  of  God.'  A  fortnight  after,  it 
was  repeated  before  the  troops  at  Burlington. 

"  Of  John  Craighead  it  is  said, '  He  fought 
and  preached  alternately/  At  the  commence 
ment  of  the  war  he  raised  a  company  from 
the  members  of  his  charge  and  joined  Wash 
ington's  army  in  New  Jersey.  His  friend, 
Dr.  Cooper  of  the  Middle  Spring  church,  is 
also  said  to  have  been  captain  of  a  company. 
He  preached  'before  Colonel  Montgomery's 
battalion  under  arms'  near  Shippensburg, 


86  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

Pennsylvania,  August  31,  1775,  a  sermon 
entitled  'Courage  in  a  Good  Cause.' 

"  Dr.  King  of  Conococheague  was  eminent 
for  his  patriotic  zeal.  He  not  only  volun 
teered  and  went  as  chaplain  to  the  battalion 
which  marched  from  his  region,  but  many 
were  the  addresses  which  he  delivered  to  in 
spirit  the  hearts  of  the  people  in  their  devo 
tion  to  the  cause  of  the  country. 

"  In  one  of  his  sermons  he  said :  '  Subjec 
tion  is  demanded  of  us,  but  it  is  not  the  con 
stitutional  subjection  which  we  are  bound  to 
pay.  It  is  not  a  legal  subjection  to  the  king 
they  would  bring  us  to — that  we  already  ac 
knowledge — but  it  is  a  subjection  to  the  Brit 
ish  parliament  or  to  the  people  of  Great 
Britain.  They  are  not  our  lords  or  masters ; 
they  are  no  more  than  our  brethren  and 
fellow-subjects.  They  call  themselves,  and 
it  has  been  usual  to  call  them,  the  mother- 
country.  But  this  is  only  a  name ;  and  if 
there  was  anything  in  it,  one  would  think 
that  it  should  lead  them  to  treat  us  like  chil- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  87 

dren.  But  is  it  fatherly  or  motherly  to  strip 
us  of  everything,  to  rob  us  of  every  right  and 
privilege,  and  then  to  whip  and  dragoon  us 
with  fleets  and  armies  till  we  are  pleased  ? 
No.  As  the  name  does  not  belong  to  them, 
so  their  conduct  shows  that  they  have  no 
right  to  claim  it.  We  are  on  an  equal  foot 
ing  with  them  in  all  respects — with  respect 
to  government  and  privileges — and  therefore 
their  usurpation  ought  to  be  opposed.  Nay, 
when  the  king  uses  the  executive  branch  of 
government,  which  is  in  his  hand,  to  enable 
one  part  of  his  subjects  to  lord  it  over  and 
oppress  another,  it  is  a  sufficient  ground  for 
our  applying  to  the  laws  of  nature  for  our 
defence. 

"  '  But  this  is  the  case  with  us.  We  have 
no  other  refuge  from  slavery  but  those  pow 
ers  which  God  has  given  us  and  allowed  us 
to  use  in  defence  of  our  dearest  rights ;  and 
I  hope  he  will  bless  our  endeavors  and  give 
success  to  this  oppressed  people,  and  that  the 
wicked  instruments  of  all  these  distractions 


88  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

shall  meet  their  due  reward.  I  earnestly 
wish  that  in  such  troublous  times,  while  we 
plead  for  liberty,  a  proper  guard  may  be 
kept  against  any  turbulent  or  mobbish  out 
break,  and  that  unanimity  may  be  universal 
both  in  council  and  in  action,  and  that  we 
may  still  have  an  eye  to  the  great  God  who 
has  some  important  reasons  for  such  severe 
corrections.  Let  us  look  to  the  rod  and 
him  that  hath  appointed  it.  Let  us  humble 
ourselves  before  him  daily  for  our  sins  and 
depend  upon  him  for  success.  If  he  be 
against  us,  in  vain  do  we  struggle.  If  the 
Lord  be  for  us,  though  an  host  should  en 
camp  against  us,  we  need  not  be  afraid.7 ' 

In  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of  the  strife, 
after  the  repulse  in  Canada,  he  said  in  a 
funeral  discourse  on  the  death  of  Mont 
gomery  : 

"  Surely  we  have  still  reason  for  the  exer 
cise  of  faith  and  confidence  in  God  that  he 
will  not  give  up  a  people  to  the  unlimited 
will  arid  power  of  others  who  have  done  all 


THE  REVOLUTION.  89 

they  could  to  avert  the  calamity,  and  who  so 
strenuously  adhered  to  the  course  of  reason 
and  humanity — a  people  who  have  been  at 
tacked  with  unprovoked  violence  and  driven 
with  the  greatest  reluctance  to  take  up  arms 
for  their  defence — a  people  whom  he  himself, 
by  a  series  of  gracious  actings,  hath  gradu 
ally  led  on  to  this  condition.  Therefore,  when 
these  are  our  circumstances,  we  may  ration 
ally  judge  that  God  is  not  an  unconcerned 
spectator,  but  that  he  sees  and  will  reward 
the  persecutors. 

"  Many  things,  indeed,  seem  to  be  against 
us — a  very  great  and  powerful  enemy,  who 
have  long  been  trained  to  victory ;  their 
numerous  and  savage  allies,  who,  having  lost 
their  liberty,  would  have  others  in  the  same 
condition  ;  our  weakness  and  inexperience  in 
war ;  internal  enemies ;  the  loss  of  many  of 
our  friends  and  a  beloved  and  able  general. 
But  let  not  these  destroy  our  hopes  or  damp 
our  spirits.  To  put  too  much  confidence  in 
man  is  the  way  to  provoke  God  to  deprive 


90  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

us  of  them.  This  may  perhaps  be  the  dark 
ness  which  precedes  the  glorious  day.  .  .  . 
It  is  agreeable  to  God's  method  to  bring  low 
before  he  exalteth,  to  humble  before  he  raises 
up.  Let  us  trust  in  him  and  do  our  duty, 
and  commit  the  event  to  His  determination 
who  can  make  these  things  to  be  for  us 
which,  by  a  judgment  of  sense,  we  are  ready 
to  say  are  against  us." 

In  a  similar  strain  did  he  exhort  the  sol 
diers  marching  to  the  field  or  address  the 
people  who  remained  behind.  "  Be  thou 
faithful  unto  death  "  was  the  text  of  one  of 
his  discourses.  "  There  is  no  soldier,"  he 
said,  "  so  truly  courageous  as  a  pious  man. 
There  is  no  army  so  formidable  as  those 
who  are  superior  to  the  fear  of  death.  Con 
sequently,  no  one  qualification  is  more  neces 
sary  in  a  soldier  than  true  religion."  These 
words  were  accompanied  by  the  tender  coun 
sels  of  a  pastor  whose  affections  followed  his 
men  to  the  scenes  of  danger  and  death.  With 
the  greatest  earnestness  he  urged  them  to 


THE  REVOLUTION.  91 

watch  over  their  own  souls,  and  not  to  bring 
dishonor  on  the  cause  to  which  they  were 
attached. 

,  While  several  of  the  Presbyterian  minis 
ters  performed  service  and  led  companies  to 
the  field,  a  large  number  were  engaged  as 
chaplains  in  the  army.  Alexander  Mc- 
Whorter,  afterward  Dr.  McWhorter,  of  New 
ark,  was  chaplain  of  Knox's  brigade  while  it 
lay  at  White  Plains,  and  often  had  General 
Washington  among  his  hearers.  James 
F.  Armstrong,  afterward  of  Elizabethtown, 
joined  a  volunteer  company  before  his  li- 
censure,  and  soon  after  he  was  ordained  was 
appointed  by  Congress  "  chaplain  of  the  sec 
ond  brigade  of  the  Maryland  forces."  Adam 
Boyd  was  chaplain  of  the  North  Carolina 
brigade.  Daniel  McCalla  was  sent  to  Can 
ada  as  chaplain  with  General  Thompson's 
forces  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities. 
Dr.  John  Eodgers  was  chaplain  of  Heath's 
brigade.  George  Duffield,  in  connection 
with  Mr.  (afterward  Bishop)  White,  was 


92  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

employed  as  chaplain  of  the  Colonial  Con 
gress. 

"  It  was  not  unfrequently  that  the  minister 
of  peace  felt  called  upon  to  engage  in  active 
service  in  the  armies  of  his  country,  and  not 
a  few  of  the  young  men  who  had  won  dis 
tinction  in  the  use  of  carnal  weapons  became 
afterward  still  more  eminent  in  the  service 
of  the  gospel.  When  an  unusual  number 
of  his  people  had  been  drafted  to  serve  in 
the  militia,  James  Latta,  of  Chestnut  Level, 
with  a  view  to  encourage  them,  took  his 
blanket,  shouldered  his  knapsack  and  ac 
companied  them  on  their  campaign. 

"Samuel  Eakin,  of  Penn's  Neck,  was  a 
strong  Whig  and  the  idol  of  the  soldiers. 
Gifted  with  extraordinary  eloquence  and 
accounted  scarcely  inferior  to  Whitefield,  he 
was  ever  on  the  alert  to  kindle  the  patriotic 
zeal  of  his  countrymen.  When  there  were 
military  trainings,  or  the  soldiers  were  or 
dered  to  march,  he  was  present  to  address 
them  and  thrill  them  by  his  eloquence. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  93 

"John  Blair  Smith,  teacher,  and  afterward 
president  of  Hampden-Sidney  College,  was 
chosen  captain  of  a  company  of  students,  and 
after  the  battle  of  Cowpens  hurried  to  join 
the  retreating  army,  and  was  only  dissuaded 
by  the  remonstrances  of  the  commanding 
officer,  who  represented  to  him  that  his  pa 
triotic  speeches  at  home  would  be  far  more 
valuable  than  his  services  in  the  camp. 

"  James  Hall,  of  North  Carolina,  subse 
quently  the  pioneer  missionary  in  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  was  selected  as  leader,  and 
accepted  the  command,  of  a  company  formed 
mainly  from  his  own  congregation,  whom 
his  fervid  and  pathetic  appeals  had  inspired 
to  arm  against  Cornwallis.  Such  was  his 
reputation  that  he  was  offered  the  commis 
sion  of  brigadier-general. 

"  When  Tarleton  and  his  British  dragoons 
spread  consternation  throughout  the  sur 
rounding  valley  of  Virginia,  William  Gra 
ham,  John  Brown  and  Archibald  Scott 
exhorted  the  stripling  youths  of  their  con- 


94  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

gregations — their  elder  brethren  were  already 
with  Washington — to  rise,  join  their  neigh 
bors  and  dispute  the  passage  of  the  invader 
and  his  legion  at  Rockfish  Gap,  on  the  Blue 
Ridge.  Graham  was  the  master-spirit,  but 
he  was  heartily  supported  by  his  co-presby 
ters.  On  one  occasion,  when  there  was  back 
wardness  to  enlist,  he  had  his  own  name 
enrolled.  The  effect  was  such  that  the  com 
pany  was  immediately  filled,  and  he  was 
unanimously  chosen  captain. 

"  It  is  worthy  of  mention  that  Dr.  Ashbel 
Green,  many  years  before  he  aspired  to  be 
an  ecclesiastical  leader,  had  obtained  the  dis 
tinction  of  orderly  sergeant  in  the  militia  of 
the  Revolutionary  period,  and  had  risked  his 
life  in  the  cause  of  his  country.  Dr.  Moses 
Hoge  served  for  a  time,  previous  to  entering 
the  ministry,  in  the  army  of  the  Revolution. 
Dr.  John  Brown,  president  of  Georgia  Uni 
versity,  had  at  the  early  age  of  sixteen  ex 
changed  the  groves  of  the  academy  for  the 
noise  and  bustle  of  the  camp,  and  fought  with 


THE  REVOLUTION.  95 

intrepid  spirit  by  the  side  of  Su niter  his  coun 
try's  battles.  Dr.  Asa  Hillyer,  of  Orange, 
N.  J.,  while  a  youth,  assisted  his  father,  a 
surgeon  in  the  Revolutionary  army.  Joseph 
Badger  was  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill, 
and  served  as  soldier,  baker,  nurse,  etc.,  in 
Arnold's  expedition  to  Canada. 

"James  White  Stephenson,  of  South  Car 
olina,  teacher  of  Andrew  Jackson,  served 
throughout  the  war,  and  on  one  occasion  had 
his  gun  shivered  in  his  hand  by  the  enemy's 
shot,  which  glanced  and  killed  the  man  who 
stood  by  his  side.  Lewis  Feuilleteau  Wil 
son,  who  studied  medicine  before  his  atten 
tion  was  directed  to  theology,  served  for 
several  years  as  surgeon  in  the  Continental 
army.  Simpson,  of  Fishing  Creek,  S.  C., 
encouraged  his  people  to  deeds  of  heroism  or 
patient  endurance,  and  was  himself  found 
bearing  arms,  and  was  in  several  engage 
ments.  Joseph  Alexander,  of  the  same  State, 
was  often  a  fugitive  from  his  own  home, 
while  he  offered  his  dwelling  at  all  times 


96  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

as  a  hospital  for  sick  or  wounded  soldiers. 
Jonas  Coe,  one  of  the  early  members  of  the 
Albany  presbytery,  joined  the  army,  along 
with  his  father  and  four  brothers,  while  yet 
a  youth  of  sixteen.  Robert  Marshall,  after 
ward  an  eloquent  minister  in  Kentucky,  was 
in  six  general  engagements,  one  of  which 
was  the  hard-fought  battle  of  Monmouth. 
James  Turner,  the  eloquent  Virginian  preach 
er,  could  boast  that  at  the  early  age  of  seven 
teen  he  had  seen  service  in  the  Revolution 
ary  army. 

"These  are  but  a  few  of  that  large  band 
identified  with  the  interests  of  the  Presbyte 
rian  Church,  and  then,  or  at  a  later  period, 
serving  at  her  altar,  who  freely  risked  their 
lives  in  the  service  of  their  country.  Whether 
in  the  bosom  of  their  own  congregations  or 
serving  in  the  camp,  they  were  animated  by 
the  same  devotion  to  the  cause  of  God  and 
their  native  land.  Their  message  every 
where  was  welcome.  The  soldier  was  in 
spired  to  bolder  courage  by  the  look  and 


THE  REVOLUTION.  97  • 

words  of  his  own  pastor  or  the  pulpit  exhor 
tations  of  those  who  shared  his  hardships 
and  his  perils.  The  camp  betrayed  the 
presence  of  a  conservative  influence,  which 
checked  the  vices  which  are  wont  to  be  in 
digenous  to  it,  while  many  who  never  lis 
tened  to  the  gospel  before  were  privileged  to 
hear  it  at  a  crisis  when  at  every  hour  they 
stood  in  peril  of  their  lives. 

"  To  the  privations,  hardships  and  cruelties 
of  the  war  the  Presbyterians  were  pre-emi 
nently  exposed.  In  them  the  very  essence 
of  rebellion  was  supposed  to  be  concentrated, 
and  by  the  wanton  plunderings  and  excesses 
of  the  marauding  parties  they  suffered  se 
verely.  Their  Presbyterian  ism  was  prima 
facie  evidence  of  guilt.  A  house  that  had  a 
large  Bible  and  David's  Psalms  in  metre  in 
it  was  supposed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  be 
tenanted  by  rebels.  To  sing  "Old  Eouse" 
was  almost  as  criminal  as  to  have  leveled  a 
loaded  musket  at  a  British  grenadier. 

"To  the  Presbyterian  clergy  the  enemy  felt 


-    98  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

an  especial  antipathy.  They  were  accounted 
the  ringleaders  of  rebellion.  For  them  there 
was  often  not  so  much  safety  in  their  own 
dwellings  as  in  the  camp.  When  their  peo 
ple  were  scattered,  or  it  was  no  longer  safe 
to  remain  among  them,  the  only  alternative 
was  to  flee  or  join  the  army;  and  this  alter 
native  was  often  presented.  Not  unfre- 
quently  the  duty  of  the  chaplain  or  the 
pastor  exposed  him  to  dangers  as  great  as 
those  which  the  common  soldier  was  called 
to  meet.  There  was  risk  of  person,  some 
times  capture,  and  sometimes  loss  of  life. 
Some  ministers  fled  for  safety.  Dr.  Rodgers 
was  forced  to  absent  himself  from  New  York 
till  the  close  of  the  war;  McKnight,  of 
Shrewsbury,  N.  J.,  was  carried  off  a  captive ; 
Richards,  of  Railway,  N.  J.,  took  warning 
and  fled  ;  Dr.  Buell,  of  East  Hampton,  L.  I., 
who  remained  at  his  post,  repeatedly  ran  im 
minent  risks  even  from  the  men  whom  his 
wit  and  urbanity  finally  disarmed. 

"  Duffield  was  saved  from  capture  at  Tren- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  99 

ton  only  by  the  timely  warning  of  a  friendly 
Quaker.  At  one  time,  while  the  enemy  were 
on  Staten  Island,  he  preached  to  the  soldiers 
in  an  orchard  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay. 
The  forks  of  a  tree  served  him  for  a  pulpit ; 
but  the  noise  of  the  singing  attracted  the 
notice  of  the  enemy,  and  soon  the  voice  of 
praise  was  interrupted  by  the  whistling  of 
balls.  But  the  preacher,  undismayed  by  the 
danger,  bade  his  hearers  retire  behind  a  hil 
lock,  and  there  finished  his  sermon.  Daniel 
McCalla  was  confined  for  several  months  in 
a  loathsome  prison-ship  near  Quebec.  Ne- 
hemiah  Greenman,  of  Pittsgrove,  K  J.,  fled 
to  the  wilderness  to  escape  the  indignities  so 
largely  dealt  out  by  the  enemy  to  the  Pres 
byterian  ministers.  Azel  Eoe,  of  Wood- 
bridge,  K  J.,  taken  prisoner  by  the  enemy, 
was  confined  for  some  time  in  the  old  suo-ar- 

o 

house.  He  came  near  having  a  fall  in  a 
small  stream  which  the  company  had  to  ford 
on  the  way.  The  commanding  officer  kindly 
offered  to  carry  Mr.  Roe  over  on  his  back. 


100  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

The  offer  was  accepted ;  and  the  suggestion 
of  Mr.  Roe  to  the  officer  that  he  was  priest- 
ridden  now  if  never  before  so  convulsed  him 
with  laughter  that  he  was  like  to  have 
dropped  his  load.  Less  merciful  was  the 
experience  of  John  Rosburgh,  of  Allentown, 
N.  J.,  first  a  private  soldier  and  afterward 
chaplain  of  a  military  company  formed  in 
his  neighborhood,  and  who  was  shot  down 
in  cold  blood  by  a  body  of  Hessians  to 
whom  he  had  surrendered  himself  a  pris 
oner.  There  was  a  strange  commingling  of 
carnal  and  spiritual  weapons  in  the  experi 
ence  of  the  camp.  Joseph  Patterson,  one  of 
the  fathers  of  the  presbytery  of  Redstone, 
had  just  knelt  to  pray  under  a  shed  when  a 
board  on  a  line  with  his  head  was  shivered 
by  the  discharge  of  a  rifle.  Stephen  B. 
Balch  preached  a  sermon  on  subjection  to 
the  higher  powers  while  General  Williams, 
to  the  annoyance  of  royalists  who  were  pres 
ent,  protected  him  with  loaded  pistols  in  his 
belt.  The  ministers  on  the  frontiers,  ex- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  101 

posed  to  the  attacks  of  the  Indians,  were 
compelled  to  go  constantly  armed.  Thad- 
deus  Dod,  with  his  people,  exchanged  his 
church  for  the  fort  that  had  been  built  on 
the  Monongahela.  Samuel  Doak,  of  the 
Holston  settlements,  paused  in  his  sermon  at 
the  alarm  of  an  attack,  seized  his  rifle,  that 
stood  by  his  side,  and  led  his  male  hearers  in 
pursuit  of  the  foe. 

"  Not  a  few  of  the  ministers  of  the  Pres 
byterian  Church  were  called  into  the  civil 
service  of  their  country.  Jacob  Green,  the 
father  of  Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  was  a  zealous 
patriot,  and  was  elected,  though  contrary  to 
his  expressed  wishes,  a  member  of  the  pro 
vincial  Congress  of  New  Jersey.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  committee  that  drafted  the 
constitution  of  the  State. 

"  Henry  Patillo  was  a  member  of  the  pro 
vincial  Congress  of  North  Carolina.  J.  J. 
Zubly  was  a  delegate  from  Georgia  to  the 
Continental  Congress. 

"  William  Tennent  of  the  Circular  church 


102  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

Charleston,  was  a  member  of  the  provincial 
Congress  of  South  Carolina,  and  amid  the 
fearful  emergencies  of  the  period,  and  at 
different  hours  of  the  same  day,  he  was 
occasionally  heard,  in  his  church  and  in  the 
State-house,  addressing  different  audiences 
with  equal  animation  on  their  temporal  and 
spiritual  interests.  And  not  content  with 
this,  in  company  with  William  H.  Dray- 
ton  he  made  the  circuit  of  the  middle  and 
up-country  of  the  State  to  stimulate  the 
people  to  resistance. 

"  David  Caldwell  was  a  member  of  the  con 
vention  that  formed  the  State  constitution  of 
North  Carolina.  Kettletas,  of  Jamaica,  was 
chosen  a  delegate  to  the  New  York  conven 
tion;  and  Duffield,  Eodgers,  McWhorter 
and  others  were  often  consulted  by  civil  and 
military  officers  in  the  trying  crises  of  the 
Revolutionary  period,  and  they  were  always 
prompt  to  render  their  services.  Like 
Thomas  Read,  of  Delaware,  roused  from  his 
bed  at  midnight  to  describe  the  region  which 


THE  REVOLUTION.  103 

the  army  was  to  traverse,  and  in  which  he 
might  act  as  a  guide,  they  were  never 
wanting  when  their  country  required  their 
counsel  or  their  aid. 

"  It  is  not  strange  that  their  course  was  re 
garded  as  specially  obnoxious  by  the  British 
troops.  Their  houses  were  plundered,  their 
churches  often  burned  and  their  books  and 
manuscripts  committed  to  the  flames.  The 
church  of  Midway,  in  Georgia,  then  Congre 
gational,  rendered  itself  obnoxious  to  the  foe 
by  its  patriotic  zeal.  In  November,  1778,  a 
special  detachment  from  Florida  attacked  the 
settlement,  burned  the  church  edifice,  almost 
every  dwelling-house,  the  crops  of  rice  then  in 
stack,  drove  off  the  negroes  and  horses,  carried 
away  the  plate  belonging  to  the  planters,  and 
outraged  even  the  graves  of  the  dead.  Some 
of  the  members  of  the  congregation  were  seized 
and  imprisoned.  Dr.  McWhorter  had  re 
moved  to  Carolina  while  the  enemy,  under 
Cornwallis,  threatened  the  Southern  country. 
Under  the  apprehension  of  danger,  he  fled 


104  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

with  his  family,  and  on  his  return  found  that 
his  library,  furniture  and  nearly  all  that  he 
possessed  had  been  sacrificed.  Not  less  un 
fortunate  were  Elihu  Spencer  at  Trenton, 
and  David  Caldwell  and  Hugh  McAden 
of  North  Carolina.  On  many  occasions  the 
soldiers  studiously  destroyed  all  that  they 
could  not  carry  away,  and  the  Presbyterian 
clergy  were  generally  the  special  objects  of 
vengeance. 

"As  might  be  expected,  religion  suffered 
greatly  throughout  the  entire  period  of  the 
war.  The  church  edifices  were  often  taken 
possession  of  by  an  insolent  soldiery  and 
turned  into  hospitals  or  prisons,  or  perverted 
to  still  baser  uses  as  stables  or  riding- 
schools.  The  church  at  Newtown  had  its 
steeple  sawed  off,  and  was  used  as  a  prison  or 
guard-house  till  it  was  torn  down  and  its 
sjding  used  for  the  soldiers'  huts.  The  church 
at  Crurnpond  was  burned  to  save  its  being 
occupied  by  the  enemy.  That  of  Mount 
Holly  was  burned  by  accident  or  design. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  105 

The  one  at  Princeton  was  taken  possession 
of  by  the  Hessian  soldiers,  and  stripped  of 
its  pews  and  gallery  for  fuel.  A  fireplace 
was  built,  and  a  chimney  carried  up  through 
its  roof.  Supposing  it  would  be  defended 
against  him,  Washington  planted  his  cannon 
a  short  distance  off  and  commenced  firing 
into  it.  It  was  subsequently  occupied  by  the 
American  soldiers ;  and  the  close  of  the  war 
found  it  dilapidated  and  open  to  the  weather, 
while  its  interior  was  quite  defaced  and  de 
stroyed. 

"  The  church  of  Westfield  was  injured  by 
the  enemy,  and  its  bell  carried  off  to  New 
York.  The  church  of  Babylon,  Long  Isl 
and,  was  torn  down  by  the  enemy  for  military 
purposes.  That  of  New  Windsor  was  used 
as  a  hospital.  This  was  the  case  also  with 
the  one  at  Morristown  ;  and  repeatedly  in  the 
morning  the  dead  were  found  lying  in  the 
pews.  The  one  at  Elizabethtown  was  made 
a  hospital  for  the  sick  and  disabled  soldiers 
of  the  American  army.  Its  bell  sounded 


106  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  note  of  alarm  at  the  approach  of  the  foe, 
while  its  floor  was  often  the  bed  of  the  weary 
soldier,  and  the  seats  of  its  pews  served  as 
the  table  from  which  he  ate  his  scanty  meal. 
At  length  it  was  fired  by  the  torch  of  the 
refugee  in  vengeance  for  the  uses  to  which 
it  had  been  devoted.  The  churches  at  New 
York  were  taken  possession  of  by  the  enemy. 
Prisoners  were  confined  in  them,  or  they  were 
used  by  the  British  officers  for  stabling  their 
horses.  Ethan  Allen  describes  the  filth  that 
had  accumulated  in  the  one  with  which  he 
was  acquainted  as  altogether  intolerable. 
More  than  fifty  places  of  worship  through 
out  the  land  were  utterly  destroyed  by  the 
enemy  during  the  period  of  the  war.  The 
larger  number  of  these  were  burned,  others 
were  leveled  to  the  ground,  while  others 
still  were  so  defaced  or  injured  as  to  be 
utterly  unfit  for  use.  This  was  the  case  in 
several  of  the  principal  cities — at  Philadel 
phia  and  Charleston  as  well  as  New  York. 
"  But  all  did  not  escape.  Caldwell  of  Eliz- 


THE  EEVOL  UTION.  107 

abethtown  was  shot  by  a  sentinel  who  is  said 
to  have  been  bribed  by  the  British  or  the 
Tories,  to  whom  he  was  especially  obnoxious. 
Moses  Allen,  a  classmate  of  President  Madi 
son  at  Princeton,  pastor  of  the  Midway  church, 
Georgia,  and  chaplain  of  a  regiment,  was 
drowned  near  Savannah,  February  8,  1779, 
in  attempting  to  swim  ashore  from  a  prison- 
ship,  the  barbarous  captain  of  which  refused 
his  friends  boards  for  his  coffin.  And  not  a 
few  others  incurred  hardships  which,  in  all 
probability,  shortened  their  days.  It  is  cer 
tainly  remarkable,  considering  their  exposure 
and  the  almost  venomous  hatred  with  which 
they  were  regarded  by  the  enemy,  that  among 
the  Presbyterian  ministers  the  direct  victims 
of  the  war  were  so  few."* 

*  "  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America."  E.  H.  Gillett,  D.  D.     Vol.  i.,  chap.  10. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

FORMAL  ACTION  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH. 

TF,  now,  from  such  records  as  these  we  turn 
-  to  what  may  be  termed  the  official  action 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Revolu 
tion,  we  shall  find  it  full  of  ardent,  high- 
toned  patriotism. 

Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  in  his  "  Constitutional 
History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States,"  writes : 

"  One  of  the  first  exercises  of  the  power 
claimed  by  parliament  to  impose  taxes  on 
America  was  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Aci~  in 
1764.  The  opposition  to  this  measure  was  so 
general  and  vehement  that  the  British  gov 
ernment  thought  proper  to  repeal  the  act, 
though  they  accompanied  the  repeal  with  the 
strongest  declarations  of  their  right  to  tax  the 
colonies  at  discretion.  In  the  controversy  re- 

108 


THE  REVOLUTION.  109 

lating  to  this  subject  the  Synod  of  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  publicly  expressed  their 
sympathy  with  their  fellow-citizens.  As 
soon  as  the  repeal  was  known  in  this  coun 
try,  '  an  overture  was  made  by  Dr.  Alison 
that  an  address  be  presented  to  our  sovereign 
on  the  joyful  occasion  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  thereby  a  confirmation  of 
our  liberties,  and  at  the  same  time  proposing 
a  copy  of  an  address  for  examination,  which 
was  read  and  approved,'  but  not  recorded. 
The  Synod  also  addressed  a  pastoral  letter  to 
the  churches,  filled  with  patriotic  and  pious 
sentiments.  They  remind  the  people  that 
after  God  had  delivered  the  country  from 
the  horrors  of  the  French  and  Indian  war, 
instead  of  rendering  to  him  according  to  the 
multitude  of  his  mercies,  they  had  become 
more  wicked  than  ever.  '  The  Almighty, 
thus  provoked,  permitted  counsels  of  the 
most  pernicious  tendency  both  to  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies.  The  imposition 
of  unusual  taxes,  a  severe  restriction  of  our 


110  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

trade  and  an  almost  total  stagnation  of  busi 
ness,  threatened  us  with  universal  ruin.  A 
long  suspense  whether  we  should  be  deprived 
of  or  restored  to  a  peaceable  enjoyment  of  the 
inestimable  privileges  of  English  liberty  filled 
every  breast  with  painful  anxiety.'  They 
express  their  joy  that  government  had  been 
induced  to  resort  to  moderate  measures  in 
stead  of  appealing  to  force,  and  call  upon  the 
people  to  bless  God,  who,  notwithstanding 
their  sins,  had  saved  them  from  the  horrors 
of  a  civil  war.  They  finally  earnestly  exhort 
their  people  not  to  add  to  the  common  stock 
of  guilt,  but  'to  be  strict  in  observing  the 
laws  and  ordinances  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  pay 
a  sacred  regard  to  his  Sabbaths,  to  reverence 
his  holy  name,  and  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of 
God  our  Saviour  by  good  works.  We  pray 
you,'  say  the  Synod,  '  to  seek  earnestly  the 
saving  knowledge  of  Christ  and  the  internal 
power  and  spirit  of  religion.  Thus  may 
you  hope  for  the  continued  kindness  of  a  gra 
cious  Providence,  and  this  is  the  right  way  to 


THE  REVOLUTION.  Ill 

express  your  gratitude  to  the  Father  of  mer 
cies  for  "your  late  glorious  deliverance.  But 
persisting  to  grieve  his  Holy  Spirit  by  a 
neglect  of  vital  religion  and  a  continuance 
of  sin,  you  have  reason  to  dread  that  a  holy 
God  will  punish  you  yet  seven  times  more 
for  your  iniquities.' ' 

As  the  indications  of  the  coming  conflict 
began  to  multiply,  the  Synod  endeavored  to 
prepare  their  people  for  the  trial.  Almost 
every  year  they  appointed  days  for  special 
prayer  and  fasting,  and  presented  "  the 
threatening  aspect  of  public  affairs  as  one 
of  the  most  prominent  reasons  for  their  ob 


servance." 


On  the  17th  of  May,  1775,  the  Synod  met 
in  Philadelphia,  and  almost  side  by  side  with 
the  second  Continental  Congress.  In  that 
Congress  sat  George  Washington,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams, 
Richard  Henry  Lee,  Patrick  Henry,  John 
Jay  and  others,  their  worthy  compeers.  Near 
by,  in  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Phila- 


112  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

delphia,  then  our  General  Assembly,  sat 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  William  Tennent,  Dr.  Rod- 
gers,  George  Duffield,  John  Brainerd,  Robert 
Cooper,  for  a  time  chaplain  in  the  army ; 
McWhorter,  "who  shared  the  councils  of 
Washington  on  the  memorable  26th  of  De 
cember,  1776,  when  the  American  troops 
crossed  the  Delaware,  and  who  was  after 
ward  chaplain  of  Knox's  brigade ;  James 
Caldwell,  inheriting  with  his  Huguenot 
blood  a  feeling  of  opposition  to  tyranny  and 
tyrants;  and  Jedediah  Chapman,  the  father 
of  Presbyterianism  in  Central  New  York, 
and  others  besides,  well  worthy  to  stand 
in  the  foremost  rank  of  American  and 
Christian  patriots." 

"  Foremost  among  them,"  writes  Dr.  Gillett, 
whom  we  have  quoted  above,  "  was  the  ven 
erable  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Scotch  in  accent  and 
in  strength  of  conviction,  but  American  in 
feeding  to  his  heart's  core,  and  destined  for 
six  years  to  represent  his  adopted  State  in 
the  general  Congress,  and  draw  up  many 


THE  REVOLUTION.  113 

of  the  most  important  state   papers  of  the 
day. 

'  With  a  clear  intellect,  a  calm  judgment, 
indomitable  strength  of  purpose  and  a  reso 
lute  and  unflinching  courage,  he  combined 
that  conscientious  integrity  and  religious 
feeling  which  made  him  among  his  associ 
ates  in  the  Church  what  Washington  was 
in  the  field,  and  secured  for  him  the  respect 
and  veneration  of  all." 

The  following  record  occurs  in  the  min 
utes  of  this  body  :  "  The  Synod,  considering 
the  present  alarming  state  of  public  affairs, 
do  unanimously  judge  it  their  duty  to  call 
all  the  congregations  under  their  care  to 
solemn  fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer,  and 
for  this  purpose  appoint  the  last  Thursday 
of  June  next  to  be  carefully  and  religiously 
observed.  But  as  the  Continental  Congress 
are  now  sitting,  who  may  probably  appoint  a 
fast  for  the  same  purpose,  the  Synod,  from 
respect  to  that  august  body  and  for  greater 
harmony  with  other  denominations,  and  for 


114  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  greater  public  order,  if  the  Congress  shall 
appoint  a  day  not  above  four  weeks  distant 
from  the  said  last  Thursday  of  June,  order 
that  the  congregations  belonging  to  this  Syn 
od  do  keep  the  day  appointed  by  Congress 
in  obedience  to  this  resolution ;  and  if  they 
appoint  a  day  more  distant,  the  Synod  order 
both  to  be  observed  by  all  our  communion. 
The  Synod  also  earnestly  recommend  it  to  all 
the  congregations  under  their  care  to  spend 
the  afternoon  of  the  last  Thursday  in  every 
month  in  public  solemn  prayer  to  God  dur 
ing  the  continuance  of  our  present  troubles." 

This  recommendation  of  the  observance  of 
a  day  for  prayer  every  month  was  frequently 
repeated  during  the  war. 

Witherspoon,  Rodgers  and  Caldwell  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  perform  the  then 
unusual  task  of  drawing  up  a  pastoral  letter 
to  be  sent  to  the  churches. 

"It  bore  throughout,"  says  Dr.  Gillett, 
"  the  stamp  of  their  deep  feeling  and  patri 
otic  as  well  as  religious  zeal.  Five  hundred 


THE  REVOLUTION.  115 

copies  of  this  noble  letter  were  ordered  to  be 
printed  and  circulated  at  the  Synod's  ex 
pense.  Thus  they  were  scattered  through 
out  all  the  congregations,  contributing  in  no 
small  measure  to  kindle  and  sustain  the  pa 
triotic  zeal  of  the  country." 

"The  Presbyterian  Church,  by  act  of  its 
highest  judicatory,  thus  took  its  stand  at 
Philadelphia  by  the  side  of  the  American 
Congress,  then  in  session,  and  its  influence 
was  felt  in  the  most  decisive  manner  throuo-h- 

o 

out  the  bounds  of  the  Church." 
This  pastoral  letter  thus  begins : 
"  The  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadel 
phia  being  met  at  a  time  when  public  affairs 
wear  so  threatening  an  aspect,  and  when, 
unless  God  in  his  sovereign  providence  speed 
ily  prevents  it,  all  the  horrors  of  a  civil  war 
throughout  this  great  continent  are  to  be  ap 
prehended,  were  of  opinion  that  they  could 
not  discharge  their  duty  to  the  numerous 
congregations  under  their  care  without  ad 
dressing  them  at  this  important  crisis.  As 


116  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  firm  belief  and  habitual  recollection  of 
the  power  and  presence  of  the  living  God 
ought  at  all  times  to  possess  the  minds  of 
real  Christians,  so  in  seasons  of  public  ca 
lamity,  when  the  Lord  is  known  by  the 
judgments  which  he  execute th,  it  would  be 
an  ignorance  or  indifference  highly  criminal 
not  to  look  up  to  him  with  reverence,  to  im 
plore  his  mercy  by  humble  and  fervent 
prayer,  and,  if  possible,  to  prevent  his  ven 
geance  by  timely  repentance.  We  do,  there 
fore,  brethren,  beseech  you  in  the  most  earn 
est  manner  to  look  beyond  the  immediate 
authors  either  of  your  sufferings  or  fears, 
and  to  acknowledge  the  holiness  and  justice 
of  the  Almighty  in  the  present  visitation." 

The  Synod  then  exhorts  the  people  to  con 
fession  and  repentance,  reminding  them  that 
their  prayers  should  be  attended  with  a  sin 
cere  purpose  and  thorough  endeavor  after 
personal  and  family  reformation.  "  If  thou 
prepare  thine  heart  and  stretch  out  thine 
hand  toward  him ;  if  iniquity  be  in  thine 


THE  REVOLUTION.  Il 

hands,  put  it  far  away,  and  let  not  wicked 
ness  dwell  in  thy  tabernacles." 

They  considered  it  also  a  proper  time  to 
press  on  all  of  every  rank  seriously  to  con 
sider  the  things  which  belong  to  their  eternal 
peace,  saying,  "  Hostilities  long  feared  have 
now  taken  place ;  the  sword  has  been  drawn 
in  one  province,  and  the  whole  continent, 
with  hardly  any  exception,  seem  determined 
to  defend  their  rights  by  force  of  arms.  If 
at  the  same  time  the  British  ministry  shall 
continue  to  enforce  their  claims  by  violence, 
a  lasting  and  bloody  contest  must  be  ex 
pected.  Surely,  then,  it  becomes  those  who 
have  taken  up  arms  and  profess  a  willingness 
to  hazard  their  lives  in  the  cause  of  liberty 
to  be  prepared  for  death,  which  to  many 
must  be  certain,  and  to  every  one  is  a  possi 
ble  or  probable  event. 

!"  We  have  long  seen  with  concern  the  cir 
cumstances  which  occasioned,  and  the  grad 
ual  increase  of,  this  unhappy  difference.  As 
ministers  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  we  have 


118  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

ardently  wished  that  it  might  be,  and  often 
hoped  that  it  would  have  been,  more  early 
accommodated.  It  is  well  known  to  you, 
otherwise  it  would  be  imprudent  indeed  thus 
publicly  to  profess,  that  we  have  not  been  in 
strumental  in  inflaming  the  minds  of  the 
people  or  urging  them  to  acts  of  violence 
and  disorder.  Perhaps  no  instance  can  be 
given  on  so  interesting  a  subject  in  which 
political  sentiments  have  been  so  long  and  so 
fully  kept  from  the  pulpit,  and  even  malice 
itself  has  not  charged  us  with  laboring  from 
the  press.  But  things  have  now  come  to 
such  a  state  that  as  we  do  not  wish  to  conceal 
our  opinions  as  men  and  citizens,  so  the  re 
lation  in  which  we  stand  to  you  seemed  to 
make  the  present  improvement  of  it  to  your 
spiritual  benefit  an  indispensable  duty." 

Then  follows  an  exhortation  directed  prin 
cipally  to  young  men  who  might  offer  them 
selves  as  "  champions  of  their  country's 
cause"  to  cultivate  piety,  to  reverence  the 
name  of  God  and  to  trust  his  providence.) 


TUP:  REVOLUTION.  119 

"The  Lord  is  with  you  while  ye  be  with 
him  ;  and  if  ye  seek  him,  he  will  be  found 
of  you :  but  if  ye  forsake  him,  he  will  for 
sake  you." 

After  this  exhortation  the  Synod  offered 
special  counsels  to  the  churches  as  to  their 
public  and  general  conduct: 

"  First.  In  carrying  on  this  important 
struggle,  let  every  opportunity  be  taken  to 
express  your  attachment  and  respect  to  our 
sovereign  King  George,  and  to  the  revolu 
tion  principles  by  which  his  august  family 
was  seated  on  the  British  throne.  We  rec 
ommend,  indeed,  not  only  allegiance  to  him 
from  principle  and  duty  as  the  first  magis 
trate  of  the  empire,  but  esteem  and  reverence 
for  the  person  of  the  prince,  who  has  merited 
well  of  his  subjects  on  many  accounts,  and 
who  has  probably  been  misled  into  his  late 
and  present  measures  by  those  about  him; 
neither  have  we  any  doubt  that  they  them 
selves  have  been  in  a  great  degree  deceived 
by  false  representations  from  interested  per- 


120  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

sons  residing  in  America,  It  gives  us  the 
greatest  pleasure  to  say,  from  our  own  cer 
tain  knowledge  of  all  belonging  to  our 
communion,  and  from  the  best  means  of  in 
formation  of  far  the  greatest  part  of  all  de 
nominations  in  this  country,  that  the  present 
opposition  to  the  measures  of  administration 
does  not  in  the  least  arise  from  disaffection 
to  the  king  or  a  desire  of  separation  from  the 
parent  State.  We  are  happy  in  being  able 
with  truth  to  affirm  that  no  part  of  America 
would  either  have  approved  or  permitted 
such  insults  as  have  been  offered  to  the  sov 
ereign  in  Great  Britain.  We  exhort  you, 
therefore,  to  continue  in  the  same  disposition, 
and  not  to  suffer  apprehension  or  injury 
itself  easily  to  provoke  you  to  anything 
which  may  seem  to  betray  contrary  senti 
ments.  Let  it  ever  appear  that  you  only 
desire  the  preservation  and  security  of  those 
rights  which  belong  to  you  as  freemen  and 
Britons,  and  that  reconciliation  upon  these 
terms  is  your  most  ardent  desire. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  121 

"Secondly.  Be  careful  to  maintain  the 
union  which  at  present  subsists  through  the 
colonies.  Nothing  can  be  more  manifest 
than  that  the  success  of  every  measure  de 
pends  upon  its  being  inviolably  preserved, 
and  therefore  we  hope  you  will  leave  noth 
ing  undone  which  can  promote  that  end. 
In  particular  as  the  Continental  Congress, 
now  sitting  at  Philadelphia,  consists  of  del 
egates  chosen  in  the  most  free  and  unbiased 
manner  by  the  body  of  the  people,  let  them 
not  only  be  treated  with  respect  and  encour 
aged  in  their  difficult  service,  not  only  let 
your  prayers  be  offered  up  to  God  for  his 
direction  in  their  proceedings,  but  adhere 
firmly  to  their  resolutions,  and  let  it  be  seen 
that  they  are  able  to  bring  out  the  whole 
strength  of  this  vast  country  to  carry  them 
into  execution.  We  would  also  advise  for 
the  same  purpose  that  a  spirit  of  candor, 
charity  and  mutual  esteem  be  preserved  and 
promoted  toward  those  of  different  religious 
denominations.  Persons  of  probity  and  prin- 


122  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

ciple  of  every  profession  should  be  united 
together  as  servants  of  the  same  Master;  and 
the  experience  of  our  happy  concord  hitherto 
in  a  state  of  liberty  should  engage  all  to  unite 
in  support  of  the  common  interest ;  for  there 
is  no  example  in  history  in  which  civil  lib 
erty  was  destroyed  and  the  rights  of  con 
science  preserved  entire. 

"  Thirdly.  We  do  earnestly  exhort  and  be 
seech  the  societies  under  our  care  to  be  strict 
and  vigilant  in  their  private  government,  and 
to  watch  over  the  morals  of  their  several 
members." 

This  duty  is  urged  at  some  length,  and 
then  the  letter  proceeds  thus : 

"Fourthly.  We  cannot  but  recommend 
and  urge  in  the  warmest  manner  a  regard  to 
order  and  the  public  peace ;  and  as  in  many 
places,  during  the  confusion  that  prevails, 
legal  proceedings  have  become  difficult,  it  is 
hoped  that  all  persons  will  conscientiously 
pay  their  just  debts  and  to  the  utmost  of 


THE  REVOLUTION.  123 

their  power  serve  one  another,  so  that  the 
evils  inseparable  from  a  civil  war  may  not 
be  augmented  by  wantonness  and  irreg 
ularity. 

"Fifthly.  We  think  it  of  importance  at 
this  time  to  recommend  to  all,  of  every  rank, 
but  especially  to  those  who  may  be  called 
to  action,  a  spirit  of  humanity  and  mercy. 
Every  battle  of  the  warrior  is  with  confused 
noise  and  garments  rolled  in  blood.  It  is 
impossible  to  appeal  to  the  sword  without 
being  exposed  to  many  scenes  of  cruelty  and 
slaughter,  but  it  is  often  observed  that  civil 
wars  are  carried  on  with  a  rancor  and  spirit 
of  revenge  much  greater  than  those  between 
independent  States.  The  injuries  received 
or  supposed  in  civil  wars  wound  more  deeply 
than  those  of  foreign  enemies.  It  is,  there 
fore,  more  necessary  to  guard  against  this 
abuse,  arid  recommend  that  meekness  and 
gentleness  of  spirit  which  is  the  noblest  at 
tendant  on  true  valor.  That  man  will  fight 
most  bravely  who  never  begins  to  fight  till  it 


124  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

is  necessary,  and  who  ceases  to  fight  as  soon 
as  the  necessity  is  over. 

"  Lastly.  We  would  recommend  to  all  the 
societies  under  our  care  not  to  content  them 
selves  with  attending  devoutly  on  general 
fasts,  but  to  continue  habitually  in  the  exer 
cise  of  prayer,  and  to  have  frequent  occasional 
voluntary  meetings  for  solemn  intercession 
with  God  on  this  important  trial.  Those 
who  are  immediately  exposed  to  danger  need 
your  sympathy,  and  we  learn  from  the  Scrip 
tures  that  fervency  and  importunity  are  the 
very  characters  of  that  prayer  of  the  right 
eous  man  that  availeth  much.  We  conclude 
with  our  most  earnest  prayer  that  the  God 
of  heaven  may  bless  you  in  your  temporal 
and  spiritual  concerns,  and  that  the  present 
unnatural  dispute  may  be  speedily  termi 
nated  by  an  equitable  and  lasting  settlement 
on  constitutional  principles." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Halsey,  it  is  recorded,  dis 
sented  from  that  paragraph  of  the  above  let 
ter  which  contains  the  declarations  of  alle- 


THE  RKVOLVTION.  125 

glance.  This  gentleman,  it  seems,  was  at 
least  a  year  in  advance,  not  only  of  the  Syn 
od,  but  of  Congress.  This  pastoral  letter 
contains  a  decided  and  unanimous  expression 
on  the  part  of  the  Synod  of  the  side  which 
it  took  in  the  great  struggle  for  the  liberties 
of  America.  It  certainly  does  them  and  the 
Church  which  they  represented  great  honor. 
They  adhered  to  the  last  to  the  duties  which 
they  owed  their  sovereign ;  they  approved 
of  demanding  no  new  liberties ;  they  re 
quired  only  the  secure  possession  of  privi 
leges  which  they  were  entitled  to  consider 
as  their  birthright. 

The  presbytery  of  Hanover,  in  a  memo 
rial  presented  to  the  legislature  of  Virginia 
in  1776,  expressed  with  earnestness  their 
hearty  adoption  of  their  country's  cause. 
"  Your  memorialists,"  they  say,  "  are  gov 
erned  by  the  same  sentiments  which  have 
inspired  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
are  determined  that  nothing  in  our  power  or 
influence  shall  be  wanting  to  give  success  to 


126  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

their  common  cause.  We  would  also  repre 
sent  that  dissenters  from  the  Church  of  Eng 
land  in  this  country  have  ever  been  desirous 
to  conduct  themselves  as  peaceable  members 
of  the  civil  government,  for  which  reason 
they  have  hitherto  submitted  to  several  ec 
clesiastical  burdens  and  restrictions  that  are 
inconsistent  with  equal  liberty.  But  now, 
when  the  many  and  grievous  oppressions  of 
our  mother-country  have  laid  this  continent 
under  the  necessity  of  casting  off  the  yoke 
of  tyranny  and  of  forming  independent  gov 
ernments  upon  equitable  and  liberal  founda 
tions,  we  flatter  ourselves  we  shall  be  freed 
from  all  the  encumbrances  which  a  spirit  of 
domination,  prejudice  or  bigotry  hath  inter 
woven  with  our  political  systems.  This  we 
are  the  more  strongly  encouraged  to  expect 
by  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  so  universally 
applauded  for  that  dignity,  firmness  and  pre 
cision  with  which  it  delineates  and  asserts 
the  privileges  of  society  and  the  prerogatives 
of  human  nature,  and  which  we  embrace  as 


THE  REVOLUTION.  127 

the  magna  charta  of  our  commonwealth,  that 
can  never  be  violated  without  endangering 
the  grand  superstructure  it  was  destined  to 
sustain." 

As  at  the  beginning,  so  also  at  the  close, 
of  the  war,  the  Synod  directed  a  pastoral 
letter  to  their  congregations  expressing  their 
sentiments  in  relation  to  the  contest.  In 
the  letter  written  in  1783  they  say : 

"We  cannot  help  congratulating  you  on 
the  general  and  almost  universal  attachment 
of  the  Presbyterian  body  to  the  cause  of  lib 
erty  and  the  rights  of  mankind.  This  has 
been  visible  in  their  conduct,  and  has  been 
confessed  by  the  complaints  and  resentment 
of  the  common  enemy.  Such  a  circumstance 
ought  not  only  to  afford  us  satisfaction  on 
the  review  as  bringing  credit  to  the  body  in 
general,  but  to  increase  our  gratitude  to  God 
for  the  happy  issue  of  the  war.  Had  it  been 
unsuccessful,  we  must  have  drunk  deeply  of 
the  cup  of  suffering.  Our  burnt  and  wasted 
churches  and  our  plundered  dwellings  in 


128  PRESHYTERIAXS  AND 

such  places  as  fell  under  the  power  of  our 
adversaries  are  but  an  earnest  of  what  we 
must  have  suffered  had  they  finally  pre 
vailed. 

"  The  Synod  therefore  requests  you  to 
render  thanks  to  almighty  God  for  all  his 
mercies,  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  in  a 
particular  manner  for  establishing  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
He  is  the  supreme  Disposer,  and  to  him  be 
longs  the  glory,  the  victory  and  the  majesty. 
We  are  persuaded  you  will  easily  recollect 
many  circumstances  in  the  course  of  the 
struggle  which  point  out  his  special  and 
signal  interposition  in  our  favor.  Our 
most  remarkable  successes  have  generally 
been  when  things  had  just  before  worn  the 
most  unfavorable  aspect,  as  at  Trenton  and 
Saratoga  at  the  beginning,  in  South  Caro 
lina  and  Virginia  toward  the  end,  of  the 
war.  They  specify,  among  other  mercies, 
the  assistance  derived  from  France  and  the 
happy  selection  '  of  a  commander-in-chief  of 


THE  REVOLUTION.  129 

the  armies  of  the  United  States,  who  in  this 
important  and  difficult  charge  has  given  uni 
versal  satisfaction,  who  was  alike  acceptable 
to  the  citizen  and  the  soldier,  to  the  State  in 
which  he  was  born  and  to  every  other  on  the 
continent,  and  whose  character  and  influence, 
after  so  long  service,  are  not  only  unimpaired 
but  augmented.' ' 

On  the  election  of  Washington  to  the  pres 
idency,  the  General  Assembly  appointed  a 
committee  to  prepare  an  address  of  congrat 
ulation,  which  was  as  follows : 

"Sm:  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Pres 
byterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  embrace  the  earliest  opportunity  in 
their  power  to  testify  the  lively  and  un 
feigned  pleasure  which  they,  with  the  rest 
of  their  fellow-citizens,  feel  on  your  appoint 
ment  to  the  first  office  in  the  nation. 

"  We  adore  almighty  God,  the  author  of 
every  perfect  gift,  who  hath  endued  you  with 
such  a  rare  and  happy  assemblage  of  talents 
as  hath  rendered  you  equally  necessary  to 


130  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

your  country  in  war  and  in  peace.  Your 
military  achievements  ensured  safety  and 
glory  to  America  in  the  late  arduous  conflict 
for  freedom,  while  your  disinterested  conduct 
and  uniformly  just  discernment  of  the  public 
interest  gained  you  the  entire  confidence  of 
the  people ;  and  in  the  present  interesting 
period  of  public  affairs  the  influence  of  your 
personal  character  moderates  the  divisions  of 
political  parties  and  promises  a  permanent 
establishment  of  the  civil  government. 

"  From  a  retirement  more  glorious  than 
thrones  and  sceptres  you  have  been  called 
to  your  present  elevated  station  by  the  voice 
of  a  great  and  free  people,  and  with  an 
unanimity  of  suffrage  that  has  few,  if  any, 
examples  in  history.  A  man  more  ambi 
tious  of  fame  or  less  devoted  to  his  country 
would  have  refused  an  office  in  which  his 
honors  could  not  be  augmented,  and  where 
they  might  possibly  be  subject  to  a  reverse. 
"We  are  happy  that  God  has  inclined  your 
heart  to  give  yourself  once  more  to  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  131 

public.  And  we  derive  a  favorable  presage 
of  the  event  from  the  zeal  of  all  classes  of 
the  people  and  their  confidence  in  your 
virtues,  as  well  as  from  the  knowledge  and 
dignity  with  which  the  Federal  councils  are 
filled.  But  we  derive  a  presage  even  more 
flattering  from  the  piety  of  your  character. 
Public  virtue  is  the  most  certain  means  of 
public  felicity,  and  religion  is  the  surest 
basis  of  virtue.  We  therefore  esteem  it  a 
peculiar  happiness  to  behold  in  our  chief 
magistrate  a  steady,  uniform,  avowed  friend 
of  the  Christian  religion,  who  has  commenced 
his  administration  in  rational  and  exalted 
sentiments  of  piety,  and  who,  in  his  private 
conduct,  adorns  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  and  on  the  most  public  and  solemn 
occasions  devoutly  acknowledges  the  govern 
ment  of  divine  Providence. 

"  The  example  of  distinguished  characters 
will  ever  possess  a  powerful  and  extensive  in 
fluence  on  the  public  mind.  And  when  we 
see  in  such  a  conspicuous  station  the  amiable 


132  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

example  of  piety  to  God,  of  benevolence  to 
men  and  of  a  pure  and  virtuous  patriotism, 
we  naturally  hope  that  it  will  diffuse  its  in 
fluence,  and  that  eventually  the  most  happy 
consequences  will  result  from  it.  To  the  force 
of  imitation  we  will  endeavor  to  add  the 
wholesome  instructions  of  religion.  We  shall 
consider  ourselves  as  doing  an  acceptable  ser 
vice  to  God  in  our  profession  when  we  con 
tribute  to  render  men  sober,  honest  and  in 
dustrious  citizens,  and  the  obedient  subjects 
of  a  lawful  government.  In  these  pious 
labors  we  hope  to  imitate  the  most  worthy 
of  our  brethren  of  other  Christian  denomi 
nations,  and  to  be  imitated  by  them,  assured 
that  if  we  can  by  mutual  and  generous  emu 
lation  promote  truth  and  virtue,  we  shall 
render  a  great  and  important  service  to  the 
republic — shall  receive  encouragement  from 
every  wise  and  good  citizen,  and,  above  all, 
meet  the  approbation  of  our  divine  Master. 

"We  pray  almighty  God  to  have  you  al 
ways  in  his  holy  keeping.     May  he  prolong 


THE  REVOLUTION.  133 

your  valuable  life,  an  ornament  and  a  bless 
ing  to  your  country,  and  at  last  bestow  on  you 
the  glorious  reward  of  a  faithful  servant !" 

To  which  Washington  replied  : 
"  To  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 

Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

"  GENTLEMEN  :  I  received  with  great  sen 
sibility  the  testimonial  given  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America  of  the  lively  and 
unfeigned  pleasure  experienced  by  them  on 
my  appointment  to  the  first  office  in  the 
nation. 

"Although  it  will  be  my  endeavor  to  avoid 
being  elated  by  the  too  favorable  opinion 
which  your  kindness  for  me  may  have  in 
duced  you  to  express  of  the  importance  of 
my  former  conduct  and  the  effect  of  my 
future  services,  yet,  conscious  of  the  disinter 
estedness  of  my  motives,  it  is  not  necessary 
for  me  to  conceal  the  satisfaction  I  have  felt 
upon  finding  that  my  compliance  with  the 
call  of  my  country  and  my  dependence  on 


134  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

the  assistance  of  Heaven  to  support  me  in 
my  arduous  undertaking  have,  so  far  as  I 
can  learn,  met  the  universal  approbation  of 
my  countrymen.  While  I  reiterate  the  pro 
fessions  of  my  dependence  upon  Heaven  as 
the  source  of  all  public  and  private  blessings, 
I  will  observe  that  the  general  prevalence  of 
piety,  philanthropy,  honesty,  industry  and 
economy  seems,  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
human  affairs,  particularly  necessary  for  ad 
vancing  and  confirming  the  happiness  of  our 
country.  While  all  men  within  our  territo 
ries  are  protected  in  worshiping  the  Deity 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  consciences, 
it  is  rationally  to  be  expected  from  them  in 
return  that  they  will  all  be  emulous  of  evin 
cing  the  sincerity  of  their  professions  by  the 
innocence  of  their  lives  and  the  benevolence 
of  their  actions.  For  no  man  who  is  profli 
gate  in  his  morals  or  a  bad  member  of  the 
civil  community  can  possibly  be  a  true 
Christian  or  a  credit  to  his  own  religious 
society. 


THE  RE  VOL  UTION.  135 

"  I  desire  you  to  accept  my  acknowledg 
ments  for  your  laudable  endeavors  to  render 
men  sober,  honest  and  good  citizens,  and  the 
obedient  subjects  of  a  lawful  government,  as 
well  as  for  your  prayers  to  almighty  God  for 
his  blessings  on  our  common  country  and 
the  instrument  which  he  has  been  pleased  to 
make  use  of  in  the  administration  of  its  gov 
ernment.* 

"  GEOKGE  WASHINGTON." 

*  The  original  of  this  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Pres 
byterian  Board  of  Publication,  Philadelphia. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  AND  DR. 
JOHN  WITHERSPOON. 

HHHE  services  of  Presbyterianism  in  the 
A  cause  of  American  liberty  present  two 
points  of  special  and  commanding  interest, 
the  one  concerning  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  the  other  concerning  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  national  confederacy. 

We  are  apt  to  think  that  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  so  completely  a  matter 
of  course  that  there  could  have  been  neither 
question  as  to  its  propriety  nor  opposition  to 
it  except  from  enemies  to  the  patriot  cause. 
In  truth,  however,  the  subject  was  hedged 
about  with  difficulties  numerous  and  great. 
Even  for  a  full  year  after  the  martyrs  had 
fallen  at  Lexington,  Concord  and  Breed's 
Hill  (we  venture  to  give  the  true  name  in 
this  last  case,  as  it  is  well  known  that  neither 


THE  REVOLUTION.  137 

was  the  battle  fought,  nor  does  the  monu 
ment  stand,  on  Bunker  Hill),  vast  numbers 
of  true-hearted  patriots  shrank  from  the 
thought  of  severance  from  the  mother-coun 
try  as  a  true  son  shrinks  from  renouncing 
connection  with  his  parental  home. 

Yet  on  the  17th  of  May,  1776,  kept  as 
a  national  fast,  Mr.  Bancroft  tells  us  that 
"George  Duffield,  the  minister  of  the  Third 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Philadelphia,  with 
John  Adams  for  a  listener,  drew  a  paral 
lel  between  George  III.  and  Pharaoh,  and 
inferred  that  the  same  providence  of  God 
which  had  rescued  the  Israelites  intended 
to  free  the  Americans." 

Whoever  hesitated,  Presbyterians  did  not. 
On  the  day  this  sermon  was  preached  the 
provincial  assembly  of  Pennsylvania  voted 
to  leave  the  question  of  independence  to  the 
discretion  of  their  delegates  in  Congress, 
knowing  that  a  majority  of  those  delegates 
were  opposed  to  independence,  Dickinson 
pledging  his  word  that  they  would  vote 


138  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

against  the  measure.  The  next  day  the  most 
copious  and  animated  debate  ever  held  upon 
the  subject  took  place  in  Congress,  lasting 
from  ten  in  the  morning  till  seven  in  the 
evening,  Robert  Livingston  of  New  York, 
Wilson,  Dickinson  and  Edward  Rutledge  ar 
dently  opposing  it. 

On  Monday  the  10th  of  June  Rutledge 
moved  that  the  question  be  postponed  for 
three  weeks,  and  it  is  significant  of  the  state 
of  feeling  that  this  motion,  after  a  whole 
day's  discussion,  was  carried. 

The  next  day  a  committee  of  five,  with 
Jefferson  at  its  head,  was  appointed  to  pre 
pare  a  formal  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  report  it  to  the  House. 

On  Friday  the  28th  of  June  the  delega 
tion  from  the  provincial  Congress  of  New 
Jersey  appeared  in  Congress,  and  among 
them  the  only  clergyman  that  sat  in  that 
body,  Dr.  John  Witherspoon,  Presbyterian 
minister  and  president  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  139 

Of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Mr.  Bancroft  writes 
in  the  sixth  chapter  of  his  history : 

"  In  New  Jersey,  Witherspoon,  a  Presbyte 
rian  minister  and  'as  high  a  Son  of  Liberty 
as  any  in  America?  met  the  committee  at 
New  Brunswick  in  July,  1774,  and  with 
William  Livingston,  member  of  the  Pres 
byterian  congregation  of  Elizabeth,  New 
Jersey,  labored  to  instruct  their  delegates 
that  the  tea  should  not  be  paid  for." 

Also,  in  his  sixty-seventh  chapter :  "  The 
new  provincial  Congress  of  New  Jersey, 
which  came  fresh  from  the  people  with 
ample  powers,  and  organized  itself  on  the 
evening  of  the  llth  of  June,  1776,  was 
opened  with  prayer  by  John  Witherspoon, 
an  eloquent  Scottish  minister  of  the  same 
faith  with  John  Knox,  a  man  of  great  abil 
ity,  learning  and  liberality,  ready  to  dash  into 
pieces  all  false  gods.  Born  near  Edinburgh, 
trained  up  at  its  university,  in  1768  he  re 
moved  to  Princeton  to  become  the  successor 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  Davies  and  Finley  as 


140  PRESBYTERIANS  AXD 

president  of  its  college.  A  combatant  of 
skepticism  and  the  narrow  philosophy  of  the 
materialists,  he  was  deputed  by  Somerset 
county  to  take  part  in  applying  his  noble 
theories  to  the  construction  of  a  civil  gov 
ernment." 

A  lineal  descendant  of  John  Knox,  he 
was  born  in  Haddingtonshire,  Scotland,  Feb 
ruary  5,  1722 ;  ordained  to  the  ministry  in 
1745;  became  president  of  the  College  of  New 
Jersey  in  1768;  died  near  Princeton,  Septem 
ber  15,  1794.  He  comes  before  us  in  his 
tory  as  a  "  many-sided  man."  A  scholar  of 
the  largest  culture,  a  profound  theologian,  a 
faithful  and  laborious  pastor,  an  orator  of 
commanding  eloquence,  a  successful  teacher, 
a  voluminous  and  successful  author,  a  skillful 
financier  and  a  great  leader  among  men, — it 
is  difficult  to  say  in  which  of  these  characters 
he  shone  to  most  advantage.  By  birth  and 
training  the  adversary  of  wrong  and  oppres 
sion  in  whatever  form,  immediately  on  his 
arrival  in  this  country  he  identified  himself 


THE  REVOLUTION.  141 

with  the  colonial  cause.  Grasping,  as  by  in 
tuition,  the  great  principles  involved  in  the 
struggle  with  the  mother-country,  his  pow 
erful  advocacy  of  American  rights  speedily 
elevated  him  to  his  proper  place  by  the  side 
of  Hancock,  Jefferson,  Franklin  and  their 
illustrious  compeers. 

As  a  member  of  the  convention  that 
formed  the  constitution  of  New  Jersey,  Dr. 
Witherspoon  astonished  and  impressed  his 
coadjutors  by  his  knowledge  and  wisdom  as 
a  civilian. 

For  six  years  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  for  the  duties  of  which 
position  "he  was  eminently  qualified  not  only 
by  the  clearness  and  vigor  of  his  intellect,  the 
calmness  of  his  judgment  and  his  indomita 
ble  strength  of  purpose,  but  by  an  uncommon 
familiarity  with  the  forms  of  public  business, 
acquired  from  the  position  which  he  held  as 
a  leader  in  the  church  courts  in  his  native 
country."  The  value  of  his  services  in  that 
body  cannot  be  overestimated,  and  the  extent 


142  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

and  weight  of  his  influence  on  the  country 

O  •" 

was  immeasurable. 

Sanderson,  in  his  "  Biography  of  the  Sign 
ers  of  the  Declaration,"  writes: 

"  It  is  impossible  to  specify  the  numerous 
services  in  which  he  was  engaged  during  his 
long  continuance  in  Congress. 

"His  talents  as  a  politician  had  been 
thoroughly  tested  previous  to  his  emigration, 
as  leader  of  the  orthodox  party  in  the  Church 
of  Scotland ;  and  he  was  fully  prepared  to 
play  a  much  more  important  part  on  the 
theatre  of  our  grand  Revolution  than  by 
displaying  his  eloquence  and  sagacity  in  the 
Presbyteries,  Synods  and  General  Assemblies 
of  Scotland." 

The  firm  and  united  adherence  to  Wash 
ington  and  his  cause  of  the  large  Scotch  and 
Scotch-Irish  population  was  due  in  no  small 
degree  to  their  confidence  in  the  piety,  ability 
and  wisdom  of  Dr.  Witherspoon. 

He  was  a  member  of  "the  secret  com 
mittee"  of  Congress,  whose  duties  were  of  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  143 

first  importance  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war. 

In  November,  1776,  when  the  army  was 
on  the  eve  of  dissolution  and  all  hearts  were 
lapsing  into  despair,  Dr.  Witherspoon  and  two 
others  were  appointed  a  committee  to  visit 
and  confer  with  Washington  on  the  condition 
of  affairs. 

In  December,  when  Congress  had  been 
driven  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore,  Dr. 
Witherspoon,  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  John 
Adams,  having  been  appointed  a  committee 
for  the  purpose,  issued  a  heart-stirring  ap 
peal  to  the  people.  Dr.  Witherspoon  was 
an  active  and  very  efficient  member  of  the 
"Board  of  War." 

In  1778  he  was  appointed,  with  three 
others,  to  prepare  a  manifesto  on  the  brutal 
treatment  by  the  British  of  American  pris 
oners,  and  the  eloquent  and  touching  paper 
reported  by  this  committee  was  adopted  by 
a  unanimous  vote  of  Congress. 

The   same   year   he   was   appointed,  with 


144  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

Robert  Morris,  Elbridge  Gerry,  Richard 
Henry  Lee  and  Gouverneur  Morris,  a  com 
mittee  upon  the  finances. 

In  1779  he  greatly  distinguished  himself 
as  a  member  of  the  committee  to  secure  sup 
plies  for  the  famishing  army. 

The  same  year,  when  a  body  of  people  re 
siding  within  the  "New  Hampshire  Grants" 
insisted  upon  establishing  themselves  as  an 
independent  State,  giving  rise  to  great  con 
fusion  and  bitter  animosities,  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon,  with  four  others,  was  appointed  a 
committee  to  conduct  the  delicate  negotia 
tions  involved  in  this  perplexing  matter. 

In  the  superlatively  important  financial 
questions  that  harassed  and  imperiled  the 
infant  republic,  the  adjustment  of  which 
"  saved  the  country  and  exalted  a  Morris  to 
the  rank  and  grandeur  of  a  Washington," 
Witherspoon  was,  more  than  any  other  man, 
the  trusted  counselor  of  the  great  financier. 

Through  the  darkest  hour  of  the  war  his 
courage  was  conspicuous  and  his  resolution 


THE  REVOLUTION.  145 

indomitable.  When,  after  the  defeat  on  Long 
Island,  Lord  Howe's  propositions  came  before 
Congress,  Mr.  Bancroft  says  : 

"  Witherspoon,  with  a  very  great  majority 
of  the  members,  looked  upon  them  as  an 
insult." 

"  Like  Rush  and  Witherspoon,  John  Ad 
ams  spoke  vehemently  against  the  proposed 
conference." 

Again  Bancroft  writes  :  "  It  was  from  With 
erspoon  of  New  Jersey  that  Madison,  bred  in 
the  school  of  Presbyterian  dissenters  under 
Witherspoon  at  Princeton,  imbibed  the  lesson 
of  perfect  freedom  in  matters  of  conscience. 
When  the  constitution  of  that  State  was 
framed  by  a  convention  composed  chiefly  of 
Presbyterians,  they  established  perfect  liberty 
of  conscience  without  the  blemish  of  a  test." 

On  the  17th  of  May,  1776,  appointed  by 
Congress  as  a  general  fast  day,  Dr.  Wither 
spoon  preached  a  sermon,  in  which  he  said  : 

"  It  would  be  criminal  not  to  observe  the 
interposition  of  Providence  in  American  af- 


10 


146  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

fairs.  Some  important  victories  have  been 
gained  with  so  little  loss  that  enemies  will 
probably  think  it  has  been  dissembled.  The 
signal  advantage  gained  by  the  evacuation 
of  Boston  and  the  shameful  flight  of  the 
army  and  navy  of  Britain  was  brought  about 
without  the  loss  of  a  man. 

"  I  willingly  embrace  the  opportunity  of 
declaring  my  opinion  that  the  cause  in  which 
America  is  now  in  arms  is  the  cause  of  jus 
tice,  liberty  and  human  nature. 

"  Everybody  must  perceive  the  absolute 
necessity  of  union. 

"  He  is  the  best  friend  of  American  liberty 
who  is  most  sincere  and  active  in  promoting 
true  and  undefiled  religion.  An  avowed  en 
emy  to  God  I  scruple  not  to  call  an  enemy 
to  his  country.  I  do  not  wish  you  to  oppose 
any  man's  religion,  but  everybody's  wicked 
ness.  The  cause  is  sacred,  and  its  champi 
ons  should  be  holy. 

"  I  exhort  all  who  go  not  to  the  field  to 
apply  themselves  with  the  utmost  diligence 


THE  REVOLUTION.  147 

to  works  of  industry.  It  is  in  your  power 
by  this  means  not  only  to  supply  the  neces 
sities,  but  to  add  strength  to  your  country. 

"  Suffer  me  to  recommend  to  you  frugality 
in  your  families  and  every  other  article  of 
expense.  Temperance  in  meals,  moderation 
and  decency  in  dress,  furniture  and  equipage 
have,  I  think,  generally  been  characteristics 
of  a  distinguished  patriot. 

"  God  grant  that  in  America  true  religion 
and  civil  liberty  may  be  inseparable,  and  that 
the  unjust  attempts  to  destroy  the  one  may  in 
the  issue  tend  to  the  support  and  establish 
ment  of  the  other." 

This  sermon  was  published  and  dedicated 
to  "The  Hon.  John  Hancock,  Esq.,  Presi 
dent  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of 
America."  To  the  sermon  was  appended  an 
"Address  to  the  natives  of  Scotland  residing 
in  America."  Of  this  sermon  and  address  a 
writer  in  a  recent  number  of  the  "  Nevr 
York  Evangelist"  says: 

"  This  sermon  was  printed  in  Philadelphia 


148  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

and  reprinted  the  next  year  at  Glasgow. 
The  object  of  the  editors  in  thus  reproducing 
it  was  openly  avowed  in  their  preface.  It 
was  '  to  show  what  artful  means  and  falla 
cious  arguments  have  been  made  use  of  by 
ambitious  and  self-designing  men  to  stir  up 
the  poor  infatuated  Americans  to  the  present 
rebellious  measures — what  an  active  hand 
even  Dr.  Witherspoon  has  had  therein — to 
convince  his  friends  in  this  country  of  the 
truth  of  his  being  a  chief  promoter  of  the 
American  revolt,  and  that,  if  he  falls  into 
the  hands  of  government  and  meets  with  the 
demerit  of  his  offence,  he  hath  justly  and  de 
servedly  procured  it  to  himself/ 

"  In  an  appendix  to  the  sermon  it  was 
added  to  his  discredit — although  what  was 
then  a  reproach  to  his  name  has  now  become 
an  honor  to  his  memory — that  *  the  scheme 
of  independency,  it  is  said,  was  first  planned 
by  him,  and  success  to  the  independent  States 
of  America,  we  are  told,  was  a  favorite  toast 
at  the  doctor's  table  when  entertaining  a 


THE  REVOLUTION.  149 

number  of  delegates  before  it  was  resolved 
on  by  the  Congress/ 

"  The  language  of  the  editor  of  the  Scot 
tish  edition  of  the  sermon  reflects  the  bitter 
ness  with  which  the  name  of  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  was  mentioned  in  Scotland.  He  went 
forth  from  his  native  land  almost  an  exile, 
virtually  ostracised  by  that  'moderatism'  in 
the  Church  which  he  had  so  scathingly  ex 
posed  and  so  keenly  ridiculed  in  his  *  Cha 
racteristics/ 

"  We  may  add  that  for  the  facts  which  we 
have  here  given  we  are  indebted  to  a  copy 
of  the  Scotch  edition  of  Dr.  Witherspoon's 
sermon,  Glasgow,  1777,  belonging  to  the 
library  of  D.  H.  McAlpin  of  this  city." 

Conspicuous  among  the  claims  of  Wither- 
spoon  upon  the  grateful  applause  of  the  nation 
is  the  fullness  of  his  confidence  in  Washington, 
and  the  uncompromising  fidelity  of  his  ad 
herence  to  him  through  evil  report  and  good 
report.  This  merit  is  the  more  conspicuous 
as  it  contrasts  so  strongly  with  the  luke- 


150  PfiESBYTERlANS  AND 

warmness,  and  even  distrust  and  opposition, 
of  not  a  few  in  the  Continental  Congress, 
whose  course  at  various  times  during  the  war 
made  the  great  heart  of  Washington  to  ache 
and  put  the  country's  cause  in  jeopardy. 

In  Bancroft's  fourteenth  chapter  we  read : 

"  In  Congress,  which  had  become  distracted 
by  selfish  schemes,  there  were  signs  of  im 
patience  at  his  (Washington's)  superiority, 
and  an  obstinate  reluctance  to  own  that  the 
depressed  condition  of  the  country  was  due 
to  their  having  refused  to  heed  his  advice. 
In  a  proposition  for  giving  him  the  power 
to  remove  generals,  John  Adams  objected 
vehemently,  saying :  '  In  private  life  I  am 
willing  to  respect  and  look  up  to  him;  in 
this  house  I  feel  myself  to  be  the  superior 
of  General  Washington.' 

"Washington  was  surrounded  by  officers 
willing  to  fill  the  ears  of  members  of  Con 
gress  with  clamor  against  his  management 
or  opinions  in  counteraction  of  his  advice. 

"  With  unselfish  and  untiring  zeal,  Wash- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  151 

ington  strove  to  repair  the  errors  and  defects 
of  Congress.  From  the  weakness  of  its 
powers  it  would  justly  escape  reprehension 
if  its  members  had  unanimously  given  him 
their  support,  but  some  of  them  indulged  in 
open  expressions  of  discontent. 

"Assuming  the  style  of  conquerors,  they 
did  not,  and  would  not,  perceive  the  true  sit 
uation  of  affairs.  They  were  vexed  that  the 
commander-in-chief  insisted  on  bringing  it 
to  their  attention  ;  and  as  if  Washington  had 
not  adventured  miracles  of  daring,  Samuel 
Adams  and  others  were  habitually  impatient 
for  more  enterprise. 

"Washington  bore  their  unjust  reproaches 
with  meekness  and  dignity,  never  forgetting 
the  obedience  and  respect  that  were  due  to 
Congress  as  his  civil  superior  and  the  repre 
sentative  of  all  the  States." 

Now,  while  even  patriots  like  Samuel  and 
John  Adams,  to  say  nothing  of  men  of  lower 
grade,  were  misled  to  censure  where  they 
should  have  applauded,  it  is  something  well 


152  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

worthy  of  observation  and  admiration  that 
Witherspoon  was  always  on  the  side  of  the 
Father  of  his  Country. 
/Not  least  prominent  among  the  features  of 

/Dr.  Witherspoon 's  character  was  his  mascu- 

\Jine  and  decided  piety. 

"His  personal  religion,"  writes  one,  "is 
well  known.  Few  men  were  ever  more 
anxious  to  walk  close  with  God,  and  by  a 
solid,  righteous  and  pious  life  to  adorn  the 
doctrine  of  the  gospel.  Besides  the  daily 
devotions  of  the  closet  and  the  family,  he 
regularly  set  apart  with  his  household  the 
last  day  of  every  year  for  fasting,  humilia 
tion  and  prayer.  He  was  also  in  the  prac 
tice  of  spending  days  in  secret  exercises  of 
this  kind  as  occasion  required." 

As  to  his  theology,  we  hardly  need  the  as 
surance  that  "  it  was  Calvinistic  according  to 
the  system  of  Calvin  himself,  subject  only  to 
the  modification  which  it  has  received  in  the 
standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Be 
tween  him  and  Calvin,  indeed,  there  was  in 


THE  REVOLUTION.  153 

talents  and  improvements  no  inconsiderable 
resemblance.  Both  were  men  of  great  in 
tellectual  powers,  both  eminent  divines,  both 
distinguished  heads  of  literary  institutions, 
both  erudite  civilians  and  both  keen  satirists. 
Dr.  Witherspoon  certainly  possessed  a  pecu 
liar  talent  for  presenting  the  Calvinistic  doc 
trines  in  a  popular  form,  and  in  a  manner 
the  least  offensive  to  those  who  do  not  hold 
them,  while  he  maintained  them  firmly  in 
their  substance." 

Of  Witherspoon,  Dr.  Ashbel  Green  writes: 
"  In  person  Dr.  Witherspoon  was  of  the 
middle  size.  He  was  fleshy,  with  a  tendency 
to  corpulence.  His  limbs  were  well  propor 
tioned  and  his  complexion  fair.  His  eyes 
were  strongly  indicative  of  intelligence.  His 
eyebrows  were  large,  hanging  down  at  the 
ends  next  his  temples.  His  countenance 
united  gravity  with  benignity  in  its  general 
expression.  The  features  of  his  face  possessed 
much  of  what  painters  denominate  character, 
and  of  course  he  was  a  good  subject  for  the 


154  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

pencil.  His  public  appearance  was  always 
graceful  and  venerable,  and  in  promiscuous 
company  he  had  more  of  the  quality  called 
presence  than  any  other  individual  with 
whom  the  writer  has  ever  had  intercourse, 
Washington  excepted. 

"  Dr.  Witherspoon  was  a  man  of  genius. 
His  chief  mental  strength  lay  in  his  reason 
ing  faculty.  He  was  a  powerful  thinker. 
When  he  took  hold  of  a  subject,  he  searched 
it  to  the  bottom,  and  in  discussing  it  he  often 
treated  it  analytically  and  synthetically.  It 
was  surprising  to  observe  with  what  readiness 
he  could  see  through  a  complicated  and  per 
plexed  subject,  estimate  its  real  merits  and 
bearing,  disentagle  it  and  present  it  in  its  true 
aspect." 

At  length  the  three  weeks  through  which 
action  on  the  resolution  on  Independence 
was  postponed  draw  to  a  close.  On  Friday, 
June  28,  Witherspoon  and  the  other  New 
Jersey  delegates  take  their  seat  in  Congress. 
The  resolution  comes  up,  and  a  further  post- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  155 

ponement  is  suggested  to  enable  the  newly- 
arrived  members  to  become  more  familiar 
with  the  momentous  matter  in  hand.  To 
this  suggestion  Dr.  Witherspoon  answered 
that  for  one  he  was  no  stranger  to  the  sub 
ject,  and  that  he  was  ready  for  action.  To 
the  suggestion  that  the  colonies  were  not  ripe 
for  the  measure  he  answered  that  in  his  judg 
ment  "  they  were  rotting  for  the  want  of  it." 

The  motion  was  carried  that  on  Monday, 
July  the  first,  the  House  go  into  a  committee 
of  the  whole  upon  the  subject.  Monday 
came,  and  fifty  members  were  in  their  seats. 
They  sat,  as  usual,  with  closed  doors.  The 
committee  on  the  Declaration  had  made 
their  report,  and  that  report  lay  on  the  table. 
All  that  day  the  resolution  was  debated,  and 
at  the  close  nine  colonies  voted  for  it.  South 
Carolina  and  Pennsylvania  voted  unani 
mously  against,  and  Delaware  w^as  divided. 

On  Tuesday  the  House  again  went  into 
committee  of  the  whole,  and  the  discussion 
was  continued,  and  at  the  close  twelve  colo- 


156  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

nies  voted  for  it,  New  York  not  voting.  A 
day  intervened,  and  on  Thursday,  at  the 
close  of  the  day,  the  same  twelve  colonies 
passed  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  New 
York  assenting  afterward.  During  the  de 
bates  of  these  four  momentous  days  the 
measure  encountered  strenuous  opposition. 
Dickenson,  of  Pennsylvania,  one  of  the  most 
respected  and  one  of  the  ablest  members  of 
the  House,  opposed  the  measure  in  a  pro 
tracted  and  elaborate  argument. 

Of  the  following  synopsis  of  Mr.  Dickin 
son's  argument  Mr.  Bancroft  says :  "  It  is 
from  a  report  made  by  himself  that  I 
abridge  his  elaborate  discourse,  using  no 
words  but  his  own. 

"  '  I  value  the  love  of  my  country,'  said 
Mr.  Dickinson,  '  as  I  ought,  but  I  value  my 
country  more  ;  and  I  desire  this  illustrious 
assembly  to  witness  the  integrity,  if  not  the 
policy,  of  my  conduct.  The  first  campaign 
will  be  decisive  of  the  controversy.  The 
Declaration  will  not  strengthen  us  by  one 


THE  REVOLUTION.  157 

man  or  by  the  least  supply,  while  it  may 
expose  our  soldiers  to  additional  cruelties. 

" l  No  instance  is  recollected  of  a  people, 
without  a  battle  fought  or  an  ally  gained, 
abrogating  for  ever  their  connection  with  a 
warlike  commercial  empire.  It  might  unite 
the  different  parties  in  Great  Britain  against 
us,  and  create  disunion  among  ourselves. 

" '  With  other  powers  it  would  rather  in 
jure  than  avail  us.  Foreign  aid  will  not 
be  obtained  but  by  our  actions  in  the  field, 
which  are  the  only  evidences  of  our  union 
and  vigor  that  will  be  respected.  In  the  war 
between  the  United  Provinces  and  Spain, 
France  and  England  assisted  the  provinces 
before  they  declared  themselves  independent. 
If  it  is  the  interest  of  any  European  kingdom 
to  aid  us,  we  shall  be  aided  without  such  a 
Declaration;  if  it  is  not,  we  shall  not  be 
aided  with  it. 

" '  Before  such  an  irrevocable  step  shall  be 
taken,  we  ought  to  know  the  disposition  of 
the  great  powers,  and  how  far  they  will 


158  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

permit  any  one  or  more  of  them  to  inter 
fere. 

"  '  The  erection  of  an  independent  empire 
on  this  continent  is  a  phenomenon  in  the 
world.  Its  effects  will  be  immense,  and  may 
vibrate  round  the  globe.  How  they  may 
affect  or  may  be  supposed  to  affect  old  es 
tablishments  is  not  ascertained. 

" '  It  is  singularly  disrespectful  to  France 
to  make  the  declaration  before  her  sense  is 
known,  as  we  have  sent  an  agent  expressly 
to  inquire  whether  such  a  declaration  would 
be  acceptable  to  her,  and  we  have  reason  to 
believe  he  is  now  arrived  at  the  court  of 
Versailles.  The  measure  ought  to  be  de 
layed  till  the  common  interest  shall  in  the 
best  manner  be  consulted  by  common  consent. 

"  '  Besides,  the  door  to  accommodation  with 
Great  Britain  ought  not  to  be  shut  until  we 
know  what  terms  can  be  obtained  from  some 
competent  power.  Thus  to  break  with  her 
before  we  have  compacted  with  another  is  to 
make  experiments  on  the  lives  and  liberties 


THE  REVOLUTION.  159 

of  my  countrymen,  which  I  would  sooner  die 
than  agree  to  make.  At  best,  it  is  to  throw 
us  into  the  hands  of  some  other  power  and 
to  lie  at  its  mercy,  for  we  shall  have  passed 
the  river  that  is  never  to  be  repassed.  We 
ought  to  retain  the  declaration,  and  remain 
masters  of  our  own  fame  and  fate.  We  ought 
to  inform  that  power  that  we  are  filled  with 
a  just  detestation  of  our  oppressors — that 
we  are  determined  to  cast  off  for  ever  all 
subjection  to  them,  and  to  declare  ourselves 
independent,  and  to  support  that  declaration 
with  our  lives  and  fortunes,  provided  that 
power  will  approve  the  proceeding,  acknow 
ledge  our  independence  and  enter  into  a 
treaty  with  us  upon  equitable  and  advan 
tageous  conditions. 

" '  Other  objections  to  the  Declaration  at 
this  time  are  suggested  by  our  internal  cir 
cumstances.  The  formation  of  our  govern 
ment  and  an  agreement  upon  the  terms  of 
our  confederation  ought  to  precede  the  as 
sumption  of  our  station  among  sovereigns. 


160  PKESBYTERIANS  AND 

A  sovereignty  composed  of  several  distinct 
bodies  of  men  not  subject  to  established 
constitutions,  and  not  combined  together  by 
confirmed  articles  of  union,  is  such  a  sov 
ereignty  as  has  never  appeared.  These  par 
ticulars  would  not  be  unobserved  by  for 
eign  kingdoms  and  States,  and  they  will 
wait  for  other  proofs  of  political  energy  be 
fore  they  will  treat  us  with  the  desired  at 
tention. 

"  '  With  respect  to  ourselves  the  consider 
ation  is  still  more  serious.  The  forming  of 
our  government  is  a  new  and  difficult  work. 
When  this  is  done,  and  the  people  perceive 
that  they  and  their  posterity  are  to  live 
under  well-regulated  constitutions,  they  will 
be  encouraged  to  look  forward  to  independ 
ence  as  completing  the  noble  system  of  their 
political  happiness.  The  objects  nearest  to 
thorn  are  now  enveloped  in  clouds,  and  those 
more  distant  appear  confused.  The  relation 
one  citizen  is  to  bear  to  another,  and  the 
connection  one  State  is  to  have  with  another, 


THE  REVOLUTION.  161 

they  do  not,  cannot,  know.  Mankind  are 
naturally  attached  to  plans  of  government 
that  promise  quiet  and  security.  General 
satisfaction  with  them  when  formed  would, 
indeed,  be  a  great  point  attained ;  but  per 
sons  of  reflection  will  perhaps  think  it  ab 
solutely  necessary  that  Congress  should  in 
stitute  some  mode  for  preserving  them  from 
future  discords. 

" '  The  confederation  ought  to  be  settled 
before  the  declaration  of  independence. 
Foreigners  will  think  it  most  regular.  The 
weaker  States  will  not  be  in  so  much  danger 
of  having  disadvantageous  terms  imposed 
upon  them  by  the  stronger.  If  the  Decla 
ration  is  first  made,  political  necessities  may 
urge  on  the  acceptance  of  conditions  highly 
disagreeable  to  parts  of  the  Union.  The 
present  comparative  circumstances  of  the 
colonies  are  now  tolerably  well  understood. 
But  some  have  very  extraordinary  claims  to 
territory,  which,  if  admitted,  as  they  might  be 

in  a  future  confederation,  the  terms  of  it  not 
11 


162  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

being  yet  adjusted,  all  idea  of  the  present 
comparisons  between  them  would  be  con 
founded.  Those  whose  boundaries  are  ac 
knowledged  would  sink  in  proportion  to  the 
elevation  of  their  neighbors. 

"'Besides,  the  unlocated  lands  not  compre 
hended  within  acknowledged  boundaries  are 
deemed  a  fund  sufficient  to  defray  a  vast 
part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  the  expenses  of  the 
war.  These  ought  to  be  considered  as  the 
property  of  all,  acquired  by  the  arms  of  all. 
For  these  reasons  the  boundaries  of  the  colo 
nies  ought  to  be  fixed  before  the  declaration, 
and  their  respective  rights  mutually  guaran 
teed  ;  and  the  unlocated  lands  ought  also,  pre 
vious  to  that  declaration,  to  be  solemnly  ap 
propriated  to  the  benefit  of  all,  for  it  may 
be  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impracticable,  to 
obtain  these  decisions  afterward. 

"  *  Upon  the  whole,  when  things  shall  thus 
be  deliberately  rendered  firm  at  home  and 
favorable  abroad,  then  let  America,  "Attolens 
humeris  famam  et  fata  nepotum  " — bearing 


THE  REVOLUTION.  163 

upon  her  shoulders  glory  and  the  destiny  of 
her  descendants — advance  with  majestic  steps 
and  assume  her  station  among  the  sovereigns 
of  the  world/  " 

Now,  when  we  consider  the  character  and 
ability  of  the  man  who  spoke  these  words, 
and  ponder  well  the  words  themselves,  we 
shall  feel  that  together  they  must  have 
carried  with  them  a  prodigious  weight. 

John  Dickinson,  "the  illustrious  farmer" 
of  Pennsylvania,  was  one  who  "  had  been 
taught  from  infancy  to  love  humanity  and 
liberty."  His  claims  to  public  respect  all 
acknowledged.  "  He  was  honored  for  spot 
less  morals,  eloquence  and  good  service  in 
the  colonial  legislature,  and  his  writings 
had  endeared  him  to  America  as  a  sincere 
friend  of  liberty.  He  had  an  excellent  heart, 
and  the  cause  of  his  country  lay  near  it." 

In  1767  he  had  written  sentences  that  rang 
through  all  the  colonies.  Respecting  the 
British  scheme  of  taxation,  he  wTote :  "  This 
is  an  innovation,  and  a  most  dangerous  inno- 


164  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

vation.  We  being  obliged  to  take  commod 
ities  from  Great  Britain,  special  duties  on 
their  exportation  to  us  are  as  much  taxes 
upon  us  as  those  imposed  by  the  Stamp  Act. 
We  are  in  the  situation  of  a  besieged  city 
surrounded  in  every  part  but  one.  If  that 
is  closed  up,  no  step  can  be  taken  but  to 
surrender  at  discretion. 

"I  would  persuade  the  people  of  these 
colonies  immediately,  vigorously  and  unani 
mously  to  exert  themselves  in  the  most  firm 
but  the  most  peaceable  manner  for  obtaining 
relief.  If  an  inveterate  resolution  is  formed 
to  annihilate  the  liberties  of  the  governed, 
English  history  affords  examples  of  resist 
ance  by  force." 

Thus  wrote  this  able,  wise  and  pure  pa 
triot  in  1767 ;  nor  was  his  patriotism  any  the 
less  above  question  in  1776. 

Besides,  if  we  recall  to  mind  the  circum 
stances  of  the  hour,  we  can  see  that  in  many 
ears  his  words  had  the  ring  of  the  soundest 
wisdom,  and  can  realize  in  some  degree  the 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  165 

heroic  intrepidity  and  indomitable  resolution 
required  in  those  who  took  the  opposite  view 
and  urged  to  immediate  action. 

But  in  behalf  of  the  Declaration  Adams 
thundered  like  a  Demosthenes  and  Wither- 
spoon  pleaded  like  a  Cicero. 

"  When  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  under  debate"-— we  quote  the  words  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  John  M.  Krebs,  of  New  York 
— "  doubts  and  forebodings  were  whispered 
through  the  hall.  The  House  hesitated, 
wavered,  and  for  a  while  liberty  and  slavery 
appeared  to  hang  in  even  scale.  It  was  then 
that  an  aged  patriarch  arose — a  venerable 
and  stately  form,  his  head  white  with  the 
frost  of  years. 

"  Every  eye  went  to  him  with  the  quick 
ness  of  thought  and  remained  with  the  fixed 
ness  of  the  polar  star.  He  cast  on  the  as 
sembly  a  look  of  inexpressible  interest  and 
unconquerable  determination,  while  on  his 
visage  the  hue  of  age  was  lost  in  the  flush  of 
burning  patriotism  that  fired  his  cheek. 


ICG  PRESBYTERIANS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

" '  There  is/  said  he,  '  a  tide  in  the  affairs 
of  men,  a  nick  of  time.  We  perceive  it  now 
before  us.  To  hesitate  is  to  consent  to  our 
own  slavery.  That  noble  instrument  upon 
your  table,  which  ensures  immortality  to  its 
author,  should  be  subscribed  this  very  morn 
ing  by  every  pen  in  this  house.  He  that 
will  not  respond  to  its  accents  and  strain 
every  nerve  to  carry  into  effect  its  provisions 
is  unworthy  the  name  of  freeman. 

"  '  For  my  own  part,  of  property  I  have 
some,  of  reputation  more.  That  reputation 
is  staked,  that  property  is  pledged,  on  the 
issue  of  this  contest;  and  although  these 
gray  hairs  must  soon  descend  into  the  sepul 
chre,  I  would  infinitely  rather  that  they  de 
scend  thither  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner 
than  desert  at  this  crisis  the  sacred  cause  of 
my  country.' ' 

"  Witherspoon,  of  New  Jersey,"  says  Mr. 
Bancroft,  "  urged  that  the  country  wras  fully 
ripe  for  the  great  decision,  and  that  delay 
alone  was  fraught  with  peril." 


CHAPTER  X. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"VTEXT  in  importance  to  the  Declaration 
was  the  organization  of  the  colonies  into 
a  confederacy.  Independence  of  Great  Brit 
ain  might  be  secured  by  victory  in  the  field, 
and  yet  little  but  confusion  and  oft-recurring 
and  protracted  intestine  conflict  ensue,  un 
less  the  isolated  States  were  drawn  together 
into  a  harmonious  and  compact  national 
Union. 

Judge  Story,  in  his  fourth  chapter  on 
"  The  Constitution,"  writes :  "  The  union  of 
the  colonies  during  the  Revolution  'grew 
out  of  the  exigencies  and  dangers  of  the 
times,  and  would  naturally  terminate  with 
the  return  of  peace.' 

"  As  little  could  it  escape  observation  how 
great  would  be  the  dangers  of  the  separation 

167 


168  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

of  the  confederated  States  into  independent 
communities,  acknowledging  no  common  head 
and  acting  upon  no  common  system.  Rival 
ries,  jealousies,  real  or  imaginary  wrongs, 
diversities  of  local  interests  and  institutions, 
would  soon  sever  the  ties  of  a  common  at 
tachment  which  bound  them  together,  and 
bring  on  a  state  of  hostile  operations  dan 
gerous  to  their  peace  and  subversive  of  their 
permanent  interests." 

At  this  late  day  it  is  not  unnatural  to  as 
sume  that  the  organization  of  a  permanent 
confederation  was  as  easy  as  the  need  of  it 
was  obvious.  And  yet  the  fact  is  that  so 
many  and  obstinate  were  the  difficulties  that 
stood  in  the  way  that  from  the  time  when 
Franklin  first  made  the  motion  for  it  in  Con 
gress  to  the  time  when  the  confederacy  was 
actually  organized  more  than  five  long  years 
passed  away.  And  it  was  more  than  sixteen 
months  after  Congress  appointed  a  committee 
consisting  of  one  member  from  each  colony 
to  digest  a  plan  for  a  confederation  before 


THE  REVOLUTION.  169 

Congress  adopted  a  plan  and  by  vote  sub 
mitted  it  to  the  colonies  for  their  assent. 
And  then  four  years  more  elapsed  before 
the  assent  of  the  colonies  could  be  secured. 

The  difficulties  that  impeded  the  formation 
of  a  confederate  union  were  clearly  set  forth 
in  the  circular  transmitted  with  the  articles 
as  adopted  by  Congress  to  the  several  State 
legislatures.  In  this  circular  Congress  thus 
excuses  itself  for  apparent  tardiness  in  the 
matter :  "  To  form  a  permanent  union  ac 
commodated  to  the  opinions  and  wishes  of 
the  delegates  of  so  many  States  differing  in 
habits,  produce,  commerce  and  internal  police 
was  found  to  be  a  work  which  nothing  but 
time  and  reflection,  conspiring  with  a  dispo 
sition  to  conciliate,  could  mature  and  accom 
plish." 

The  main  hindrance  to  the  formation  of  a 
Federal  Union  centred  around  the  reluctance 
of  the  several  States  to  yield  to  a  general 
government  any  of  the  powers  they  pos 
sessed. 


170  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

"There  was  not,"  writes  Mr.  Bancroft,  "at 
that  time  one  single  statesman  who  fully  com 
prehended  the  need  of  the  country." 

We  more  than  suspect  that  there  was  at  least 
one  exception  to  this  sweeping  remark.  Still, 
at  that  time  "  each  one  of  the  colonies  con 
nected  -its  idea  of  freedom  and  safety  with 
the  exclusive  privilege  of  managing  its  in 
ternal  policy.  And  they  delighted  to  keep 
fresh  the  proud  memories  of  repeated  victo 
ries  won  over  the  persistent  attempt  of  the 
agents  of  a  supreme  power  which  was  exter 
nal  to  themselves  to  impose  restrictions  on 
their  domestic  autonomy." 

Edward  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  "saw 
danger  in  the  very  thought  of  an  indissoluble 
league  of  friendship  between  the  States  for 
their  general  welfare."  And  of  even  the 
little  less  than  anarchical  scheme  proposed 
in  Congress  in  July,  1776,  he  said :  "  If  it 
be  adopted,  nothing  less  than  ruin  to  some 
colonies  will  be  the  consequence."' 

It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  we  read 


THE  REVOLUTION.  171 

that  "  seemingly  irreconcilable  differences  of 
opinion  left  Congress  no  heart  to  continue 
the  work  of  confederation." 

For  sixteen  months  from  the  report  of  a 
plan  of  confederation  "  the  spirit  of  separa 
tion  fostered  by  opposing  interests,"  dread 
of  interference  of  one  State  in  the  affairs  of 
another,  fears  on  the  part  of  the  South  of  the 
more  compact  and  homogeneous  North,  "  vis 
ibly  increased  in  Congress." 

Each  colony  retained  a  traditional  jealousy 
of  any  interference  from  without  with  its  inter 
nal  privileges.  As  they  had  forbidden  king 
arid  parliament,  so  now  they  forbade  any  con 
federate  government,  to  levy  taxes  or  duties 
except  for  postage.  The  relation  of  slaves  to 
freemen  in  the  basis  of  representation  formed 
another  vexing  question.  Another,  not  less 
troublesome,  was  whether  the  smaller  States 
should  have  equal  vote  in  the  Congress  with 
the  larger  ones.  And  as  arduous  as  any 
other  problem  was  that  involved  in  the  con 
flicting  claims  to  the  vast  territories  of  west- 


172  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

ern  lands.  New  Hampshire  and  five  or  six 
other  States  had  boundaries  well  defined. 
But  other  of  the  colonies  extended,  accord 
ing  to  their  charters,  to  the  Mississippi,  or 
even  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  former  in 
sisted  that  this  vast  western  domain  ought  to 
be  a  joint  property,  while  the  latter  claimed 
each  its  own  share  for  its  own  purposes  as  a 
source  of  revenue.  On  this  point  Judge 
Story  writes : 

"  This  subject  was  one  of  a  perpetually 
recurring  and  increasing  irritation,  and  the 
confederation  would  never  have  been  acceded 
to  if  Virginia  and  New  York  had  not  at  last 
consented  to  make  liberal  cessions  of  the  ter 
ritory  within  their  respective  boundaries  for 
national  purposes." 

Thus  years  rolled  away  ere  a  confederation 
became  possible. 

Now,  a  point  on  which  Presbyterians  love 
to  dwell  is  the  inherent  tendency  of  their 
system  toward  organization.  Just  as  natu 
rally  as  the  seed  germinates  Presbyterianism 


THE  REVOLUTION.  173 

organizes.  It  is  itself  an  organism ;  and  if 
Nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  Presbyterianism 
abhors  disintegration  or  anything  that  tends 
thereto. 

"  Everything  organic,"  writes  Dr.  Charles 
Hodge,  "has  what  may  be  called  a  nisus 
formativus,  an  inward"  force  by  which  it  is 
impelled  to  assume  the  form  suited  to  its 
nature." 

Thus  Presbyterianism  "  is  not  an  external 
framework.  It  is  a  real  growth.  It  is  the 
outward  expression  of  an  inward  law."  A 
score  of  Presbyterians,  shipwrecked  in  help 
less  exile  upon  a  distant  shore,  would  as  cer 
tainly  organize  by  the  election  of  a  pastor 
and  a  body  of  elders  to  rule  them  as  the  sun 
is  sure  to  rise  in  the  morning.  Possessed  of 
this  spirit,  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world  that  Presbyterianism  should  demand 
order  and  organization  wherever  practicable 
in  all  with  which  it  has  to  do.  And  Dr. 
Witherspoon  being  a  Presbyterian  from  the 
crown  of  his  head  to  the  sole  of  his  foot,  it 


174  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

was  one  of  the  most  natural  things  in  the 
world  that  he,  when  the  subject  of  organizing 
the  chaos  of  independent  States  into  a  com 
pact  system  of  order  and  subordination  came 
before  Congress,  should  at  once  see  its  neces 
sity,  believe  in  its  practicability,  and  throw 
all  the  energy  of  his  nature  into  the  effort 
for  its  realization.  Accordingly,  in  Sander 
son's  "  Lives  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declara 
tion  "  we  read : 

"  Dr.  Witherspoon  warmly  maintained  the 
absolute  necessity  of  union  to  impart  vigor 
and  success  to  the  measures  of  government, 
and  he  strongly  combated  the  opinion  ex 
pressed  in  Congress  that  a  lasting  confed 
eracy  among  the  States  was  impracticable. 
He  declared  that  such  sentiments  were  cal 
culated  greatly  to  depress  the  minds  of  the 
people  and  weaken  their  efforts  in  defence 
of  the  country. 

"  '  I  confess/  said  he,  l  such  a  conviction 
would  to  me  greatly  diminish  the  glory  and 
importance  of  the  struggle,  whether  consid- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  175 

ered  as  for  the  rights  of  mankind  in  general, 
or  for  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  this 
continent  in  future  times.  It  would  quite 
depreciate  the  object  of  hope,  as  well  as  place 
it  at  a  greater  distance. 

" '  For  what  would  it  signify  to  risk  our 
possessions  and  shed  our  blood  to  set  our 
selves  free  from  the  encroachments  and  op 
pressions  of  Great  Britain,  with  a  certainty, 
as  soon  as  peace  was  settled  with  them,  of  a 
more  lasting  war,  a  more  unnatural,  a  more 
bloody  and  much  more  hopeless  war  among 
the  colonies  themselves  ? 

"  *  If,  at  present,  when  the  danger  is  yet 
imminent,  when  it  is  so  far  from  being  over 
that  it  is  but  coming  to  its  height,  we  shall 
find  it  impossible  to  agree  upon  the  terms  of 
this  confederacy,  what  madness  is  it  to  sup 
pose  that  there  ever  will  be  a  time  or  that 
circumstances  wrill  so  change  as  to  make  it 
even  probable  that  it  will  be  done  at  an  after 
season  !  Will  not  the  very  same  difficulties 
that  are  in  our  way  be  in  the  way  of  those 


176  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

who  shall  come  after  us  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
they  should  be  ignorant  of  or  inattentive  to 
them?  Will  they  not  have  the  same  jeal 
ousies  of  each  other,  the  same  attachment 
to  local  prejudices  or  particular  interests? 
So  certain  is  this  that  I  look  upon  delay  here 
as  in  the  repentance  of  a  sinner,  though  it 
adds  to  the  necessity  yet  augments  the  diffi 
culty  and  takes  away  from  the  inclination/ ' 

A  sentiment  expressed  in  this  debate  that 
it  was  to  be  expected  from  the  nature  of  men 
that  a  time  must  come  when  a  confederacy 
would  be  dissolved  and  broken  in  pieces, 
and  which  seemed  to  create  an  indifference 
as  to  the  success  of  the  measure,  produced 
the  following  burst  of  eloquence : 

"  I  am  none  of  those  who  either  deny  or 
conceal  the  depravity  of  human  nature  till 
it  is  purified  by  the  light  of  truth  and  re 
newed  by  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God.  Yet 
I  apprehend  there  is  no  force  in  that  reason 
ing  at  all.  Shall  we  establish  nothing  good 
because  we  know  it  cannot  be  eternal  ?  Shall 


THE  REVOLUTION.  Ill 

we  live  without  government  because  every 
constitution  has  its  old  age  and  its  period? 
Because  we  know  that  we  shall  die,  shall  we 
take  no  pains  to  preserve  or  lengthen  out 
life  ?  Far  from  it,  sir.  It  only  requires  the 
more  watchful  attention  to  settle  the  govern 
ment  on  the  best  principles  and  in  the  wisest 
manner,  that  it  may  last  as  long  as  the  nature 
of  things  will  admit." 

Dr.  Witherspoon  concluded  his  eloquent 
arguments  in  favor  of  a  well-planned  con 
federation  in  the  following  terms : 

"  For  all  these  reasons,  sir,  I  humbly  ap 
prehend  that  every  argument  from  honor, 
interest,  safety  and  necessity  conspires  in 
pressing  us  to  a  confederacy ;  arid  if  it  be 
seriously  attempted,  I  hope,  by  the  blessing 
of  God  upon  our  endeavors,  it  will  be  happily 
accomplished." 

Grouping  together,  then,  these  facts  among 
others — the  fact  that  Presbyterianism  is  in 
its  own  nature  a  system  of  pure  representa 
tive  republican  government,  and  as  such  in 

12 


178  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

striking  harmony,  both  in  form  and  spirit, 
with  that  of  the  State  and  nation ;  that 
it  has  always  been  peculiarly  odious  to  ty 
rants  ;  the  numerous  patriotic  deliverances 
of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadel 
phia  and  of  some  of  the  Presbyteries  of 
our  Church;  the  fact  that  "the  first  voice 
publicly  raised  in  America  to  dissolve  all 
connection  with  Great  Britain  "  was  that  of 
the  Presbyterians,  the  Westmoreland  county 
resolutions  and  the  Mecklenburg  Declara 
tion  ;  the  fact  that  Witherspoon,  a  Presby 
terian  of  the  most  authentic  type,  repre 
sented  in  the  Continental  Congress  the  com 
pact  Presbyterianism  of  the  land,  and  that 
(besides  his  other  numerous  and  exceed 
ingly  important  services)  he  threw  the  whole 
weight  of  his  own  personal  influence  and 
that  of  those  he  represented,  first  in  favor 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
then  in  favor  of  the  organization  of  the 
States  into  a  confederate  union, — and  we 
have  some  of  the  grounds  upon  which  to 


THE  REVOLUTION.  179 

base  an  estimate  of  the  share  which  Presby 
terians  had  in  building  and  launching  that 
national  vessel  that  now  rides  so  proudly  upon 
the  billows  with  forty  millions  of  voyagers 
on  board. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MONUMENT  TO    WITHERSPOON. 

TF  God  bade  his  Israel  to  take  stones  from 
•  the  river's  bed  and  build  them  into  a 
monument  of  the  Jordan  passage,  will  he 
look  with  disfavor  upon  us  if  we  gather  some 
stones  from  the  bed  of  our  national  Jordan, 
and  taking  some  of  the  brass  we  dig  from 
our  hills  shape  it  into  the  form  and  features 
of  the  devout,  devoted,  patriotic  "Wither- 
spoon,  and  set  up  that  figure  upon  those 
stones  before  the  eyes  of  men,  there  to  stand 
through  coming  generations,  a  mute  but  elo 
quent  witness  of  what  God  did  in  those  early 
days  of  heroism  and  trial  for  our  beloved 
country  through  his  agency  and  that  of 
those  he  represented  ? 

1.  Such  a  monument  will  stand  as  an  ap 
propriate  indication  of  the  existence,  claims 
and  services  of  religion  in  our  country. 

ISO 


THE  REVOLUTION.  181 

Our  parks  and  public  places  abound  with 
statues  of  secular  worthies — statesmen,  heroes, 
artists,  poets  and  others — and  is  religion  noth 
ing  that  it  should  have  no  such  represent 
ative  among  them  ? 

The  tourist  abroad  who  visits  the  city  of 
Worms,  in  Germany,  has  his  attention  ar 
rested  by  the  magnificent  statue  of  Luther, 
and  catches  anew  the  heroic  spirit  of  the 
Reformation  as  he  gazes  at  that  noble  form, 
the  eyes  raised  to  heaven,  his  left  hand  hold 
ing  to  his  body  a  copy  of  the  word  of  God, 
his  right  hand  closed  and  laid  firmly  down 
upon  it,  and  on  his  mute  lips  and  determined 
brow  the  daring  purpose,  "  I'll  go  to  Worms 
though  as  many  devils  hinder  as  there  are 
tiles  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses." 

At  Oxford,  England,  we  see  the  marble 
forms  of  Cranmer,  Ridley  and  Latimer  stand 
ing  there  where  their  hot  ashes  smoked  to 
heaven,  for  ever  reciting  with  their  pure  pale 
lips  the  story  of  their  burning;  and  what 
lover  of  the  Lord  Jesus  as  he  gazes  on  those 


182  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

forms  does  not  feel  through  his  frame  a 
thrill  of  the  martyr-spirit  ?  At  Bedford  the 
statue  of  Banyan  rises  before  us ;  and  as  we 
look  and  muse  we  think  of  his  twelve  years 
in  Bedford  jail,  with  his  poor  blind  daughter 
at  his  knees,  and  seem  to  hear  from  those 
mute  lips  the  recital  again  of  the  pilgrim's 
immortal  tale.  At  Kidderminster  we  see 
the  statue  of  Richard  Baxter,  "  his  uplifted 
hands,"  in  the  words  of  Dean  Stanley,  "call 
ing  to  the  unconverted,  as  of  the  seventeenth 
so  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  turn  and  live, 
his  serene  countenance  telling  us  of  the  un 
seen  and  better  world  where  i  there  remain- 
eth  a  rest  for  the  people  of  God.' '  At  Ed 
inburgh  the  statue  of  Andrew  Melville  recalls 
the  heroism  that  both  baffled  the  wiles  and 
defied  the  threats  of  the  bad  regent  Morton. 
At  Glasgow  you  see  the  form  of  Knox  tow 
ering  over  the  city,  and  every  element  of 
manhood  in  you  awakens  to  new  energy  as 
you  gaze  upon  the  form  of  that  man  amongst 
men. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  183 

But  where  in  the  parks  and  public  places 
of  our  republic  will  you  find  one  solitary 
statue  to  a,  Christian  hero?  Is  it  not  time 
that  this  monopoly  of  secularism  be  broken 
up  ? — that  by  such  a  statue  as  we  propose  the 
throngs  who  visit  our  public  places  be  re 
minded  that  our  thoughts  are  not  wholly 
engrossed  with  life's  seeularities,  and  that  the 
memories  of  those  who  have  preached  with 
lip  and  life  the  great  salutary  truths  of 
Christ's  religion  have  place  in  our  memories 
and  in  our  hearts  ? 

2.  Such  a  monument  will  symbolize  the  in 
separable  union  between  religion  and  freedom. 

Witherspoon  was  at  once  an  ardent  Chris 
tian  and  an  ardent  patriot,  and  his  principles 
of  civil  freedom  he  derived  from  his  religion. 

Indeed,  no  feature  of  our  whole  Revolu 
tionary  movement  was  more  prominent  than 
its  religious  spirit.  The  great  body  of  the 
colonists  were  exiles  for  conscience'  sake. 
Almost  invariably,  when  the  earlier  public 
meetings  were  called,  they  were  opened  with 


184  PRESBYTERIANS  AXD 

prayer.  Almost  without  exception  the  pas 
tors  of  the  people  were  among  the  most 
forward  and  most  eloquent  champions  of 
the  cause. 

Of  these  men,  Jonathan  Mayhew,  of  Bos 
ton,  may  stand  as  the  type.  As  early  as 
1750  we  find  him  preaching  resistance  to 
"  the  first  small  beginnings  of  civil  tyranny, 
lest  it  should  swell  to  a  torrent  and  deluge 
empires."  Of  like  spirit  was  the  eloquent 
Samuel  Cooper,  pastor  of  the  Brattle  Street 
church,  in  Boston.  When  the  freemen  "on 
the  rivers  Watauga  and  Holstein,"  in  Ten 
nessee,  met  together,  as  early  as  the  opening 
of  1775,  they  appointed  their  pastor,  Rev. 
Charles  Cummings,  as  chairman  of  their 
committee,  who  expressed  his  own  spirit  and 
theirs  in  the  words,  "  We  are  deliberately 
and  resolutely  determined  never  to  surren 
der  any  of  our  inestimable  privileges  but  at 
the  expense  of  our  lives." 

On  this  point  we  cite  also  the  following 
from  the  pen  of  the  well-known  writer 


THE  REVOLUTION.  185 

J.  T.   Headley,   published   recently   in   the 
"New  York  Observer:" 

"The  approaching  Centennial  has  sud 
denly  awakened  attention  to  our  early  strug 
gle  for  independence.  It  cannot  but  have  a 
salutary  effect  to  recall  the  scenes  and  events 
of  that  time,  and  to  compare  its  leaders  and 
statesmen  with  those  who  control  our  politi 
cal  destinies  to-day,  and  may,  perhaps,  lead 
to  a  new  political  departure.  But  if  the 
pulpit  and  clergy  of  that  period  do  not  have 
a  large  place  in  the  imposing  ceremonials 
proposed  to  be  inaugurated,  it  will  but  half 
fulfill  its  true  object  and  teach  but  half  the 
lesson  a  true  history  of  the  Revolution  should 
impart.  In  New  England  the  Revolution 
rested  on  the  pulpit.  It  almost  alone  trained 
the  people  in  the  knowledge  of  their  political 
rights  and  made  the  cause  of  freedom  the 
cause  of  God.  This  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
the  Massachusetts  house  of  representatives 
passed  a  resolution  requesting  the  clergy  of 
the  colony  to  preach  on  weekdays  on  polit- 


186  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

ical  subjects.  One  can  trace  in  the  annual 
election-sermons,  as  they  were  called,  the 
progress  of  the  popular  feeling.  These  were 
preached  every  spring  before  the  house  of 
delegates  on  the  election  of  a  council  to  His 
Majesty's  governor  of  the  colony,  and  always 
took  up  the  question  of  political  rights,  and 
discussed  ably  the  doctrine  of  human  free 
dom  and  the  reciprocal  duties  and  obliga 
tions  of  the  governed  and  their  rulers.  They 
were  afterward  printed  in  a  pamphlet  form 
and  scattered  broadcast  over  the  land.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  there  were  scarcely 
any  newspapers  at  that  time,  and  the  pulpit 
and  the  clergy  were  almost  the  only  chan 
nels  of  communication  between  the  civil  au 
thority  and  the  people.  England  saw  with 
alarm  the  tremendous  power  the  clergy 
wielded  in  the  colonies,  and  declared  that 
they  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  rebellion. 
In  1774  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  re 
fused  the  request  of  the  assembly  to  appoint 
a  public  fast,  giving  the  reason  '  that  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  187 

request  was   simply  to  give  an  opportunity 
for  sedition  to  flow  from  the  pulpit.' 

"Take  these  election-sermons  from  1770 
to  1775,  and  you  can  see  the  footprints  of  the 
rebellion.  At  first  dealing  with  general  prin 
ciples,  they,  as  the  oppressions  of  the  mother- 
country  increased,  applied  them  to  the  exist 
ing  state  of  things,  till  the  governor  became 
alarmed  at  the  outspoken  truths  he  was  com 
pelled  to  listen  to.  Thus,  in  the  spring  after 
the  tea  had  been  thrown  overboard,  while  Bos 
ton  was  still  rocking  like  a  vessel  in  a  storm 
under  the  popular  excitement,  Hitchcock,  a 
thorough  Cromwellian,  was  selected  to  preach 
the  election-sermon.  Rising  in  his  place  in 
the  house  of  representatives,  he  thundered  in 
the  ears  of  the  astonished  governor,  '  When 
the  wicked  bear  rule,  the  people  mourn.' 
In  that  discourse  the  governor  saw  clearly 
the  indications  of  the  coming  storm.  The 
clergy  were  actually  in  advance  of  the  civil 
authorities  in  their  views.  In  1776,  after 
the  meeting  of  the  first  Continental  Con- 


188  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

gress,  William  Godwin  preached  the  elec 
tion-sermon,  and  took  his  text  from  Jeremiah 
xxx.  20,  21:  'Their  children  shall  be  as 
aforetime,  and  their  congregation  shall  be 
established  before  me,  and  I  will  punish  all 
that  would  oppress  them,  and  their  nobles 
shall  be  of  themselves/  After  reading 
thus  far,  he  paused  a  moment,  and  looking 
over  the  assembled  members  said  in  an 
altered  tone,  '  The  sentence  is  not  perfected 
without  the  addition,  "And  the  government 
shall  proceed  from  the  midst  of  them;"  but 
the  wisdom  of  the  Continental  Congress,  in 
which  we  cheerfully  confide,  has  restrained 
me  from  making  it  a  part  of  my  text.  In 
an  abler  hand,  at  some  fitter  time,  it  may  of 
itself  alone  suffice  for  a  complete  text.  Amen: 
so  let  it  be'  It  is  clear  where  he  stands. 
He  is  more  than  ready  for  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Let  it  come;  and  when  it 
does,  it  will  be  thundered  from  every  New 
England  pulpit  and  startle  every  hearer  like 
the  blast  of  a  bugle. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  189 

( "  But  not  only  did  the  Revolution  in  New 
England  rest  on  the  shoulders  of  the  clergy 
and  the  pulpit  become  the  great  recruiting 
station  for  the  army,  but  a  clergyman  caused 
the  first  blow  to  be  struck  that  has  made  Lex 
ington  immortal.  It  was  on  the  village  green, 
in  front  of  Lexington  church,  of  which  Jonas 
Clark  was  pastor,  that  the  first  blood  was  shed 
and  flowed  from  the  veins  of  his  own  parish 
ioners.  Settled  on  a  little  farm,  with  a  salary 
of  eighty  pounds  a  year  and  twenty  cords 
of  wood,  he  seemed  destined  to  exert  little 
influence  outside  of  his  small  parish ;  yet 
he  started  a  movement  that  rent  a  kingdom 
asunder  and  is  destined  to  revolutionize  the 
civilized  world.  His  wife  was  the  cousin  of 
John  Hancock,  and  the  two  men  spent  many 
an  hour  discussing  the  great  principles  of 
human  freedom  and  the  rights  of  the  colo 
nies.  The  fruit  of  these  discussions  was 
given  to  his  people  from  the  pulpit  and  at 
the  town-meetings.  They,  in  turn,  had  these 
views  embodied  in  instructions  to  their  dele- 


190  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

gate  to  the  provincial  Legislature  as  express 
ing  their  wishes  and  determinations,  and  they 
remain  to  this  day  on  the  town  records  as 
model  papers.  Mr.  Everett  once  said  :  l  They 
had  no  superiors  and  few  equals.'  He  says, 
moreover :  i  Mr.  Clark  was  of  a  class  of  cit 
izens  who  rendered  service  second  to  no 
others  in  enlightening  and  animating  the 
popular  mind  on  the  great  question  at  issue. 
I  mean  the  patriotic  clergy  of  New  Eng 
land/ 

"  Rev.  William  Ware  said  :  '  There  was  no 
person  at  that  time,  in  that  vicinity — not  only 
no  clergyman,  but  no  person  of  whatever  call 
ing  or  profession — who  took  a  firmer  stand 
for  the  liberties  of  his  country.'  In  fact,  he 
educated  his  people  up  to  the  point  of  resist 
ance,  and  on  that  memorable  morning  of  the 
19th  of  April,  when  at  two  o'clock  the  fierce 
clang  of  his  own  church-bell  called  his  par 
ishioners  to  the  spot,  they  found  their  pastor 
already  there  to  rouse  their  courage  by  his 
presence  and  appeals.  The  roll  was  called, 


THE  REVOLUTION.  191 

and  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  answered  to 
their  names.  What  an  impressive  scene  they 
presented,  the  pastor  and  his  congregation, 
standing  there  in  the  dim  starlight,  under 
the  shadow  of  that  silent  church,  waiting 
for  the  clock  of  destiny  to  strike  the  hour ! 
As  the  pastor  passed  along  the  ranks  every 
eye  gleamed  with  more  heroic  fire,  and  every 
hand  grasped  the  firelock  with  a  firmer 
clutch.  Clark  had  trained  them  for  that 
hour.  'Would  they  fight?'  Hancock  and 
Adams  had  asked.  'Yes,'  said  Clark;  'not 
only  would  they  fight,  but  die  right  there, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  house  of  God,  and 
in  the  presence  of  their  pastor.'  Afterward, 
in  the  sharp  rattle  of  musketry  that  followed 
the  order,  '  Throw  down  your  arms  and  dis 
perse,'  Mr.  Clark  heard  what  he  knew  would 
be  the  result  of  his  own  teachings.  When 
the  smoke  cleared  away  and  the  British  had 
retreated,  he  walked  up  and  gazed  long  and 
silently  on  the  seven  stalwart  men  (his  own 
parishioners)  that  lay  stark  and  stiff  in  death. 


192  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

But  he  shed  no  tears,  uttered  no  regrets.  He 
only  murmured  in  solemn  tones,  *  From  this 
day  will  be  dated  the  liberty  of  the  world.1 
His  prophetic  eye  saw  clearly  '  beyond  that 
day's  business.'  And  so,  as  we  stated  before, 
'the  teachings  of  the  pulpit  of  Lexington 
caused  the  first  blow  to  be  struck  for  Ameri 
can  independence." 

That  the  religious  sentiment  of  the  colo- 

o 

nists  should  have  been  on  the  side  of  free 
dom  was  perfectly  natural.  For  the  doc 
trines  of  true  religion  come  from  the  Bible, 
and  it  is  there  that  the  statesman  learns  that 
"  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  they  are  en 
dowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalien 
able  rights."  The  true  equality  of  men  was 
first  practically  exhibited  when  rich  and 
poor,  master  and  slave,  male  and  female,  sat 
down  together  at  the  same  communion-table 
to  eat  of  the  same  loaf  and  drink  from  the 
same  cup.  And  all  the  sanctions  of  eternity 
are  given  to  the  doctrines  of  man's  equality 
in  the  offer  of  the  same  heaven  on  precisely 


THE  RE  VOL  UTION.  193 

the  same  terms  to  prince  and  peasant,  igno 
rant  and  enlightened.  Further  still,  to  the 
continued  enjoyment  of  liberty  a  high  degree 
of  virtue  is  absolutely  essential,  and  this  vir 
tue  draws  its  life-blood  from  the  religion  of 
the  word  of  God. 

Atheism  prates  of  human  rights,  and  we 
admit  that  an  atheist  has  the  same  rights  as 
he  who  recognizes  and  worships  the  God  of 
heaven.  But  we  affirm  that  on  his  own  prin 
ciples  he  has  no  rights  that  any  one  is  bound 
to  respect.  I  have  certain  inalienable  rights 
because  I  am  made  in  the  image  of  my  God, 
and  who  touches  me  touches  God's  image. 
I  have  certain  inalienable  rights  because  my 
Creator  gave  them  to  me,  and  who  robs  me 
robs  Jehovah.  But  that  atheist,  who  "un- 
tenants  creation  of  its  God,"  has  by  his  creed 
abolished  the  only  source  of  human  rights. 
He  is  the  product  of  blind,  brutish,  physical 
forces.  His  body  and  soul  are  the  result  of 
a  fortuitous  concourse  of  material  atoms,  and 
as  such  a  being  what  rights  can  be  his  other 

13 


194  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

than  such  as  belong  to  the  tree  on  the  moun 
tain's  side  against  the  avalanche  that  grinds 
it  to  powder  ?  On  the  atheistic  and  infidel 
theory  the  only  conceivable  right  is  that 
which  might  bestows.  The  right  is  with  the 
strongest. 

Let  infidelity  and  materialistic  atheism 
prevail  in  our  republic,  destroying  the  very 
foundations  of  human  rights,  liberating  the 
human  mind  from  the  restraints  of  con 
science  and  from  all  sense  of  obligation,  all 
awe  of  God  and  all  fear  of  future  retribu 
tion,  and  republican  liberty  and  government 
perish  for  ever. 

Now,  in  a  day  when  a  materialistic  infi 
delity  and  atheism  are  floating  in  the  air, 
breathing  from  the  pages  of  magazine  and 
newspaper,  and  even  creeping  into  our  .school- 
books,  is  it  mnwise,  is  it  not  at  once  a  privi 
lege  and  duty,  to  take  this  idea  and  put  it 
into  bronze,  and  set  it  up  where  millions  of 
eyes  may  see  it  ?  The  God  of  the  Bible  the 
only  source,  and  the  religion  of  the  Bible  the 


THE  REVOLUTION.  195 

only  conservator,  of  our  inalienable   rights. 
Eeligion  and  liberty  for  ever  inseparable. 

3.  Then  the  success  of  our  Evolutionary 
struggle  was  due  to  the  favor  of  God  in  an 
swer  to  prayer. 

Is  it  not  well  to  set  up  before  men  the 
figure  of  him  who,  in  addition  to  his  other 
services,  was  ever  the  mover  in  Congress 
for  the  appointment  of  those  repeated  days 
of  fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer  which 
wrought  so  powerfully  with  the  people  to 
blend  piety  with  patriotism,  and  to  hallow 
all  that  was  dear  to  love  of  country  with  all 
that  was  sacred  in  religion  ? 

4.  Such  a  monument  will  challenge  the 
attention  of  our  sons  and  daughters  to  the 
nature  and  historic  glories  of  our  cherished 
Presbyterian  system,  and  to  the  style  of  cha 
racter  which  it  and  the  body  of  doctrine  with 
which  it  is  almost  invariably  allied  tends  to 
create. 

It  is  in  great  measure  through  lack  of  in 
formation  on  these  points  that  some  of  them 


196  PRESBYTERIANS  AXD 

exchange  their  church  for  another  as  readily 
as  they  throw  away  an  old  shoestring.     And 


it  is  a  sigh  of  the  hour — 


"  God,  give  us  men  !     A  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  ready  hands ; 
Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill ; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy ; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will ; 

Men  who  have  honor ;  men  who  will  not  lie." 

And  not  only  men,  but  women  too !  And  a 
little  familiarity  with  the  records  of  the  past 
will  people  the  recollection  with  images  of 
stalwart  men  and  heroic  women  moulded  and 
given  to  the  world  by  Calvinistic  Presbyte- 
rianism. 

No  less  truthfully  than  eloquently  does 
the  historian  Froude  "write  of  Calvinism 
that  it  has  "inspired  and  sustained  the 
bravest  efforts  ever  made  by  man  to  break 
the  yoke  of  unjust  authority." 

"  When  all  else  has  failed,  when  patriotism 
has  covered  its  face  and  human  courage  has 
broken  down,  when  intellect  has  yielded,  as 


THE  REVOLUTION.  197 

Gibbon  says,  with  a  'smile  or  a  sigh/  content 
to  philosophize  in  the  closet  and  abroad  wor 
ship  with  the  vulgar,  when  emotion  and  sen 
timent  and  tender,  imaginative  piety  have  be 
come  the  handmaids  of  superstition,  and  have 
dreamed  themselves  into  forgetfulness  that 
there  is  any  difference  between  lies  and  truth, 
— the  slavish  form  of  belief  called  Calvinism, 
in  one  or  other  of  its  many  forms,  has  borne 
ever  an  inflexible  front  to  illusion  and  men 
dacity,  and  has  preferred  rather  to  be  ground 
to  powder  like  flint  than  to  bend  before 
violence  or  melt  under  enervating  tempta 


tion." 


Our  youth  need  to  be  taught,  and  perad- 
venture  some  of  their  elders  reminded,  that 
Coligny  and  his  noble  army  of  French  Hu 
guenots  were  to  a  man  Galvinistic  Presby 
terian? — that  William  the  Silent  and  his 
Dutch  heroes,  who  bore  so  heroically  the 
long  agony  of  Spanish  oppression,  and  at 
last  chased  the  cruel  minions  of  Philip  and 
the  pope  out  of  the  Netherlands  and  built 


198  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

a  republic  on  the  ruins  of  despotism,  were 
Calvinistic  Presbyterians. 

What  style  of  womanhood  comes  from  the 
hands  of  Calvinistic  Presbyterian  ism  we  may 
see  in  the  person  of  Coligny's  wife,  the  noble 
Charlotte  de  Laval.  The  admiral,  wounded 
and  taken  prisoner  at  the  memorable  battle 
of  St.  Quentin,  had  been  conveyed  to  Ghent. 
During  his  sickness  and  imprisonment  there 
his  hand  fell  upon  a  copy  of  the  word  of 
God.  As  lie  read  and  mused  he  was  led 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  accept  salvation  as 
offered  in  the  gospel.  Sitting  one  evening 
after  his  liberation  and  return  to  Chatillon 
upon  a  balcony  of  the  castle,  and  at  his  side 
Charlotte  his  wife,  who  "  was  wonderfully 
given  to  the  Reformed  religion,"  they  looking 
together  at  the  silver  stars,  she  said  to  him  : 

"  How  wonderful  that  you  and  your 
brother  Andelot  should  have  been  blest  in 
your  captivity  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth !  And  why  do  you  not  now  publicly 
avow  your  faith  as  he  has  done  ?" 


THE  REVOLUTION.  199 

"Sound  your  soul,"  lie  answered.  "Are 
you  prepared  to  hear  of  defection,  to  receive 
the  reproaches  of  partisans  as  well  as  ene 
mies,  treasons  of  your  friends,  exile,  shame, 
nakedness,  hunger,  even  the  hunger  of  your 
own  children,  your  own  death  by  an  execu 
tioner,  after  that  of  your  husband  ?  I  give 
you  three  weeks  to  consider." 

"  They  are  gone  already,"  replied  his  wife. 
"  Do  not  bring  upon  your  head  the  deaths 
of  those  three  weeks,  or  I  will  myself  bear 
witness  against  you  at  the  judgment-seat  of 
God." 

"Enough,  madame,"  said  he.  "It  was 
only  for  your  sake  that  I  thought  of  these 
terrors." 

At  once  he  professed  himself  a  follower  of 
the  Reformation.  And  on  St.  Bartholomew's 
bloody  eve  they  stabbed  him  to  death  in  his 
own  chamber  and  threw  his  body  out  of  the 
window,  cut  off  his  venerable  head  and  sent 
it,  a  choice  and  welcome  present,  to  the  pope, 
and  for  three  days  the  abjects  of  Paris 


200  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

dragged  the  lifeless  trunk  through  the  streets, 
and  hung  it  up  by  the  heels  upon  the  gibbet. 

See,  too,  the  heroic  wife  of  John  Welsh 
begging  of  England's  coarse,  cruel  king  the 
favor  that  her  poor  sick  husband,  fourteen 
years  in  exile  and  pining  for  a  breath  of  his 
native  air,  might  return  to  his  home. 

"Whose  daughter  are  you?"  James  de 
manded. 

"  The  daughter  of  John  Knox." 

"Knox  and  Welsh!  The  devil  never 
made  such  a  match  as  that." 

"Very  like,  Your  Majesty ;  we  never  asked 
his  advice." 

"  What  children  did  your  father  leave  ?" 

"  Three,  Your  Majesty." 

"  Were  they  lads  or  lasses  ?" 

"  Lasses,  Your  Majesty." 

"The  Lord  be  praised!  Had  they  been 
lads,  I  could  not  have  kept  my  seat  upon 
my  throne." 

Witherspoon  was  one  of  those  banes  of  a 
later  generation,  and  King  George  was  not 


THE  REVOLUTION.  201 

able  to  keep  seat  on  the  American  portion  of 
his  throne. 

"  But  give  him  his  native  air,  sir,"  begged 
the  woman. 

"  Give  him  the  devil !"  answered  the  bru 
tal  king. 

"  Give  that,  sir,  to  your  hungry  courtiers." 

"  Well,  he  may  return  if  he  will  conform." 

Lifting  her  apron,  she  answered,  "I  would 
rather  take  his  head  here." 

And  need  we  speak  of  Knox,  whom  Car- 
lyle  pronounced  "  the  bravest  of  all  Scotch 
men,"  whom  Froude  calls  "the  representa 
tive  of  all  that  was  best  in  Scotland,"  and 
of  whom  he  adds,  "  no  grander  figure  can  be 
found  in  the  history  of  the  Eeformation  in 
this  island"? 

It  was  quite  in  the  course  of  things  that 
Witherspoon  should  plead  so  earnestly  in 
behalf  of  the  Declaration,  for  the  chief  sen 
timent  of  that  immortal  paper  had  been  an 
nounced  by  Knox,  his  great  ancestor,  two 
hundred  years  before.  It  was  in  the  pres- 


202  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

ence  of  the  beautiful  but  wicked  Mary  queen 
of  Scots. 

"  Think  you,"  asked  the  queen,  with  indig 
nant  amazement — "  think  you  that  subjects, 
having  the  power,  may  resist  their  princes  ?" 

To  which  Knox  replied :  "  If  princes  ex 
ceed  their  bounds,  madam,  no  doubt  they  may 
be  resisted  even  by  power.  For  no  greater 
honor  or  greater  obedience  is  to  be  given  to 
princes  than  God  has  ordained  to  be  given 
to  father  and  mother.  But  the  father  may 
be  struck  with  a  frenzy  in  which  he  would 
slay  his  children.  Now,  madam,  if  the 
children  arise,  join  together,  apprehend  the 
father,  take  the  sword  from  him,  bind  his 
hands  and  keep  him  in  prison  till  the  frenzy 
be  over,  think  you,  madam,  that  the  children 
do  any  wrong  ?  Even  so,  madam,  is  it  with 
princes  that  would  murder  the  children  of 
God  that  are  subject  unto  them.  Their 
blind  zeal  is  nothing  but  a  mad  frenzy ; 
therefore,  to  take  the  sword  from  them,  to 
bind  their  hands  and  to  cast  them  into  prison 


THE  REVOLUTION.  203 

till  they  be  brought  to  a  more  sober  mind  is 
no  disobedience  against  princes,  but  true 
obedience,  because  it  agreeth  with  the  will 
of  God." 

"Thus  spoke  Calvinism,"  writes  Froude, 
"  the  creed  of  republics." 

And  Andrew  Melville. 

The  bad  regent  Morton,  scowling  and 
biting  the  head  of  his  staff,  growled :  "  There 
will  never  be  quietness  in  this  country  till 
half  a  dozen  of  you  be  hanged  or  banished." 

"Tush,  sir!"  answered  Melville;  "threaten 
your  courtiers  after  this  manner.  It  is  the 
same  to  me  whether  I  rot  in  the  air  or  under 
the  ground.  I  have  been  ready  to  give  my 
life  where  it  would  not  be  half  so  well  ex 
pended." 

And  those  brave  Covenanters  who  spread 
their  declaration  of  independence  on  the 
broad  tombstone  in  Gray  Friars'  churchyard, 
and  signed  it,  some  of  them,  with  a  pen 
dipped  in  their  veins,  opened  for  the  purpose. 

This    covenant    in    its    remotest    conse- 


204  PRESBYTERIANS  AND 

quences  took  off  the  head  of  Charles  L,  of 
Wentworth  and  Laud,  the  three  great  ty 
rants  who  had  bound  England,  Church  and 
State,  hand  and  foot  like  a  very  slave,  and 
thus  liberated  England  and  saved  constitu 
tional  liberty  for  the  world. 

This  is  the  sort  of  character  that  Calvin- 
istic  Presbyterianism  has  given  to  the  world. 
Would  our  society  be  any  the  worse  for  a  few 
more  like  them?  Would  it  harm  our  sons 
and  daughters  to  receive  a  new  endowment 
of  this  style  of  moral  nerve  and  muscle  ? 

5.  Such  a  monument  will  be  a  ceaseless 
iteration  of  the  fact  that  to  a  very  large  de 
gree  the  seed  whose  fruit  we,  as  citizens  of 
this  republic,  are  now  harvesting,  in  our  prin 
ciples  of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  in  our 
intelligence  and  means  of  culture  and  in  the 
nation's  marvelous  march  to  greatness,  was 
sown  by  Presbyterian  hands. 

Finally,  the  unveiling  of  this  statue  during 
the  Centennial  period,  with  prayer  and  praise 
and  oration,  will  call  the  attention  of  the  na- 


THE  REVOLUTION.  205 

tion  and  the  world  to  these  facts,  reminding 
them  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  is,  in  its 
nature  and  form,  a  representative  republic, 
and  that,  ever  hated  by  tyrants,  ever  a  cham 
pion  of  truths  that  create  moral  nerve  and 
muscle  and  fit  men  to  dare  and  do  and  en 
dure,  it  has  deserved,  and  does  deserve,  a  deep 
place  in  the  gratitude  and  a  high  place  in 
the  admiration  of  the  nation  for  its  services 
in  the  cause  of  God  and  man. 


THE   END. 


14  DAY  TTQP 
•TO*  TO  DBSK  FROM  WmCH  BORKOWBD 


LOAN  DEPT. 


LC0476I31 


.General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


YB  37334 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


